Back To The Age Of The 80s
Posted on November 20, 2020 by UntamedS
"Teacher, I'm borrowing all of these!" Liu Menglin placed a huge box heavily on the library counter. In the early 1980s, there was no Internet search, and one had to go to the library to consult research-related materials, which was an important reason why it was so difficult for domestic scientific research to start.
Before the reform and opening up of China, there was very little contact between the academic circles in China and the outside world, and all foreign journals and documents had to go through many layers of inspection. Therefore, Li Zheng greatly admired the scientific researchers of this era, who groped step by step in the darkness of the night with little help from outside and spent much more time and energy to produce scientific results than their foreign contemporaries.
The librarian looked at the box almost half a man high with amazement and pushed up his glasses, "All of these ……?"
Liu Menglin nodded, "Teacher, please register quickly, I'm in a hurry to send the stuff to the lab."
The library teacher suddenly said, "I see. Which professor are you running errands for again? Amoxicillin, huh? I haven't heard of any professor starting a program on this."
Liu Menglin smiled heedlessly and did not reply.
The librarian acted quickly, and in less than ten minutes, a big box of information was registered.
When Liu Menglin was carrying the boxes out, he also met several students, graduate students of biopharmaceutical majors, who were following their tutors into the labs.
Their labs liked to do bacterial analysis, virus analysis, research on the source of infection, transmission, pathogenic process of a disease, and provide theoretical support for other labs to research corresponding drugs.
It was like the birth of a product, which needed market research, material selection, style design, etc. before it could enter the production line and most of the laboratories at Hong Kong Department of Medicine did market research. Their theories pointed the way to drug production, but it was a bit difficult to get them started on pharmaceuticals.
After all, the capital cost of drug development was too large for a university laboratory to afford.
It was the first time Zhang Yuejun had ever worked on drug production, and he was sweating after using a few waste tubes of reagents.
Li Zheng was wearing goggles, carefully observing the drug reaction, and when he glanced at Zhang Yuejun's obviously nervous expression, he let out a sigh and took off his mask and goggles.
"Senior, don't be nervous. It's true that the first time pharmaceuticals can be a bit overwhelming, and I'm the same way." Saying that he didn't take off the rubber gloves on his own hand, but put another one on top, picked up the two glass tubes, and began to demonstrate.
Zhang Yuegun's mouth was slightly open, and he looked at Li Zheng with almost a dumbfounded gaze, was he doing an experiment? This was simply art!
Zhang Yuegun suddenly had a premonition in his heart that perhaps …… they might be able to really develop the drug for frozen blood in five days.
"Senior, in fact, there are some tricks to make the drug configuration, such as reagent exchange, such as the mixing of suspensions, these can be slowly figured out. Don't worry about wasting reagents, these are all paid for by me personally and there are no financial restrictions." In his last life, Li Zheng entered the lab at the age of twenty and died suddenly at the age of thirty-two.
For twelve years, his experimental techniques could be almost self-contained.
Zhang Yuejun was so impressed that he felt as if Li Zheng's entire body glowed when he conducted experiments. Among the biopharmaceutical majors of Hong Kong University, only a few professors who could independently lead the project would have this kind of experimental technique, which had developed its own distinctive characteristics. This kind of private technique was usually taught only to their beloved disciples, and Zhang Yuegun was not qualified to learn it.
Zhang Yuejun was very excited by Li Zheng's unselfish teaching; if he could learn this kind of experimental technique, it would be worth the price of the ticket even if he didn't get a second job and didn't get paid ten Hong Kong dollars an hour.
Li Zheng had only heard about the frozen blood drug in his previous life. The United Nations Women and Children's Fund (UNICEF) did a great deal of work to make a treatment for frozen blood available in the late 1990s. He vaguely remembered where he had read about the drug's formula, but his memory was a bit hazy because it had been so long.
Li Zheng listed all the possible ingredients on a blank sheet of paper that covered the entire desktop, trying to cross one off the other. Library-related materials were also thrown on the floor, which was very messy.
In his last life, he had graduated from Stanford and entered Cold Spring Harbor, and his smooth sailing experience had made him a little proud. But this experience made him think about the road he should take in the future. Maybe the future laboratory of Li Zheng should pay more attention to special disease drugs……
On Christmas Eve of the 25th, the lights in Xu Mingsheng's laboratory were on all night.
As soon as Li Zheng entered the lab, he had no sense of time, and Zhang Yuejun was so excited that he couldn't rest. Liu Menglin wanted to rest, but when he saw that neither Li Zheng nor his senior brother had any intention of going back, he had to obediently sort out the data.
So when Xu Mingsheng came to the lab the next day, this was what he saw. He was like a tireless machine, crossing out experiments before continuing them. Zhang Yuegun was wearing two heavy black eyes, but he was indeed getting more and more proficient in his experimental techniques. Liu Menglin obeyed Li Zheng's command and kept finding what Li Zheng wanted from the materials spread all over the floor and handed them over.
Xu Mingsheng picked up Zhang Yuegun's experimental flow chart on the side and looked at it, and was astonished.
"Li Zheng, are you working on a drug to treat frozen blood?" When Li Zheng called yesterday to borrow his lab and two staff members, Xu Mingsheng agreed without even thinking about it as he wanted to do a small experiment.
It was just that today, when he went to work, many colleagues came to his office to inquire about what kind of project he wanted to open in his lab and where he got the money.
Xu Mingsheng was at a loss, it was now December, the 82 years of research project funding had long been used up, new funding had not been approved yet, what project could he open!
The professors still didn't believe it, and said that Liu Menglin carried a whole box of materials to the lab.
Liu Menglin? Xu Mingsheng thought of Li Zheng with a thud in his heart, no, this was what he saw when he came over this morning.
"Teacher, please wait. Zhang Yuegun, adjust the ratio, 20, 70," Li Zheng continued his actions without looking up.
Zhang Yuejun responded, picked up the two tubes of reagents, and began to reconfigure them.
Xu Mingsheng was helpless, he had already called him teacher, what could he do? Although he felt that this student, Li Zheng, was a bit overwhelmed by the success of the drug catalyst, was the catalyst and the new drug the same thing? It was one thing to overestimate one's abilities, but he was positive about Li Zheng's starting point for this experiment.
"Ouch, you're so fast. I'll do it." As soon as he took off his coat and put on his lab coat and rubber gloves, he snatched Zhang Yuegun's job and actually did the work for Li Zheng himself.
This was the true scholarly style. No matter which era, there were such people, they knew that the essence of knowledge inheritance and research was for the benefit of mankind, and they had a sincere scholar's heart regardless of their status.
Zhang Yuegun was stunned, then he scratched his head and smirked, quickly picked up the other two tubes of reagents, and followed Professor Xu's action.
Li Zheng crossed out one of the ingredients again, looked up at Xu Mingsheng, and said jokingly, "Teacher, if you personally give me a hand, should I share my thesis with you?".
Xu Mingsheng glanced at Li Zheng, "It's been more than ten years since I haven't made a second composition, so if this thesis of yours really comes out, I'll throw away my pride, I'll make this second composition too."
The two of them laughed loudly.
Xu Mingsheng was worthy of being immersed in the laboratory for decades, and his experimental techniques were even more sophisticated than Li Zheng's. With his participation, the experimental process was doubled.
The next four days were spent in the lab, except for Xu Mingsheng, who was too old and couldn't keep up physically, after squinting in the lab, the three young men worked almost day and night, and became more and more excited!
Because they saw hope that a new drug might be born in their hands.
On the fourth day, a batch of guinea pigeons came in and a batch went out.
"Do we have to go to hell if we die? In this business, I don't know how many lives I have in my hands in just one day," Liu Menglin said as he used two fingers to block the breathing holes of a pigeon that was in great pain from the drug.
Li Zheng laughed lightly, not counting all the lab animals that died in his hands in his last life, a single drug test required dozens or even hundreds of mice for comparison, if God really pursued, he wouldn't be standing here today.
"You can be a vegetarian and eat less chicken, duck, and fish on weekdays, and you'll probably be able to withstand a drug test." Li Zheng said with a smile.
Liu Menglin stumbled and touched his nose, "I'd better not then."
Li Zheng looked at the batch of mice being taken out and suddenly said, "For the humans."
The movement of the people in the lab was a bit solemn.
Yes, for the sake of the humans!
In the early morning of the 30th, Xu Mingsheng almost looked at Li Zheng with wonder. Even with the vague memories of his past life, five days was still not enough time for the world to witness the birth of a new drug.
However, Xu Mingsheng could say without exaggeration that after these few days, the molecules of the new drug for frozen blood had vaguely appeared in front of the public, and at this pace, it would only take a year, maybe half a year, for the new drug for frozen blood to be released.
Even if there was a reference element of the aminomisartine drug component, this speed was still a miracle.
Li Zheng silently took a look at the countless drug molecules crossed out on the white paper and sighed, without the fuzzy memories of his past life, he would have needed more than half a year to reach the animal testing stage simply by relying on the deduction of the drug components of the aminomisartine.
Was he too greedy? Li Zheng laughed bitterly, a person's life was only a few decades, and he wanted to be as productive as possible.
"We have to leave for the 11:00 a.m. flight. Menglin ah, the lab stays intact, we'll come back to continue the animal experiments!" The excitement of a new drug about to be born in his hands made Xu Mingsheng's whole body perk up.
Liu Menglin said yes loudly, while secretly glancing at Li Zheng.
Li Zheng smiled dumbly, "I'll write my thesis on the plane."
Liu Menglin and Zhang Yuejun laughed "hehehehehe".
On the way, Xu Mingsheng suddenly coughed and said seriously, "I won't hang up for the second paper. However, the fallout of this paper of yours ……"
Li Zheng looked at the wandering Xu Mingsheng and said with a smile, "Teacher, I did this experiment in your office, and the payment will naturally have the name of the Pharmaceutical Laboratory of the University of Hong Kon in it."
Xu Mingsheng's eyes popped out, "It's the First Medical Laboratory of the University of Hong Kong!" He didn't want Li Zheng to write two words less and let his old buddies get the glory.
Li Zheng replied calmly, "Okay, teacher."
When the three of them hurried to the airport, Prof. Wang, Prof. Zhao, and graduate student Yang Lime were already waiting. Professors Wang and Zhao looked suspiciously at the three people with dark circles under their eyes.
"What have you guys been doing for the past few days? Old Xu, you are almost fifty years old, not a young man, so be careful what you do." Professor Wang laughed.
Xu Mingsheng laughed twice and didn't answer, waiting for the paper to come out to scare these two old guys to death.
Prof. Wang and Prof. Zhao looked at each other and saw the doubt in each other's eyes.
But they didn't think much of it. What could happen in just four or five days, and they were in the same school, so what could happen that could be hidden from them?
A group of six people boarded the plane.
"Yang Lime, change seats with Li Zheng." Xu Mingsheng suddenly said when he reached his seat.
The six people were seated in rows of three, with Yang Lime and Professor Wang in the window seat, and the order of the six people in the two rows: Yang Lime, Professor Zhao, and Liu Menglin; Professor Wang, Li Zheng, and Xu Mingsheng.
"Oh good." Yang Lime agreed without even thinking about it, smiled and swapped places with Li Zheng.
"Old Zhao, I'll swap with you too." Without a word, Xu Mingsheng sat his butt in the middle of the first row.
Professor Wang and Professor Zhao looked at each other, and they exchanged a glance. This old Xu head must have a secret! And this secret was also related to Li Zheng!
Li Zheng touched his nose, of course, he understood Professor Xu's meaning, leaning against the window, and on the other side was Xu Mingsheng, which was convenient for him to write his thesis.
When the plane landed smoothly at the Tokyo airport, Li Zheng finished the first draft of his dissertation.
The six of them were laughing and pulling their suitcases out of the airport. Suddenly, Li Zheng's movement was stopped and his eyes were drawn to a group of people outside the Tokyo airport.
They were dressed in old-fashioned black suits, their hair was neatly shaved with mousse, and they looked serious, walking at the same pace, in sharp contrast to the passers-by who were hurrying by.
He recognized that the man in his early thirties with dark glasses was Chen Anbang, the professor from Huaqing University who had convinced him to return to China in his last life. In other words, these were the Chinese scholars who had come to attend the Asian Biopharmaceutical Congress.
Chen Anbang had mentioned that he started working in the field of biopharmaceuticals in the 1970s, when the environment for biopharmaceuticals in China was very bad. Unlike physics and chemistry, which could be translated into military power, there was state attention and financial support. In his time, it was very difficult to find a complete drug production line in China.
So, at that time, all the biopharmaceutical scholars changed their careers, and very few of them survived. He once said that the biggest obsession of his counterparts in those days was to introduce a complete drug production line.
"Li Zheng, what are you looking at?" Professor Zhao asked.
Li Zheng turned his head and smiled, "Nothing."
Ever since Li Hongzhang signed the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, Hong Kong had been under the rule of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the current generation of Hong Kong people had been educated by the British from birth to the present, so their feelings towards China were probably very complicated.
The six of them arrived at the hotel by cab. The conference would be held tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, and they would have the whole night free.
As soon as Li Zheng arrived at the hotel room, he laid on the bed, he hadn't slept for five days and four nights in a row, and even though his body was young, he still had a feeling that he couldn't take it.
When he woke up again, it was already more than seven o'clock in the evening, and there was a small note left by Xu Mingsheng and the others in the doorway.
It said that they had knocked on Li Zheng's door at around five o'clock, but there had been no response, so they went out to eat first.
In the 1980s, Japan's economy was at its peak, generating nearly half of the GDP of the U.S. with one-third of the U.S. population, and in the early 1980s, when China-Japan relations were at their honeymoon stage, a 1980 Japanese government survey showed that Japanese people's closeness to China was at an all-time high of 72.7%, surpassing that of the U.S. for the first time.
It was seven or eight o'clock, and the Japanese nightlife had just begun.
Li Zheng touched his stomach, he was a little hungry.
From the hotel, he took a taxi and headed straight to Ginza, Li Zheng had been to Japan many times in his past life and was familiar with some of the old stores.
He remembered that not far from the Ginza, around the corner, there was very good eel rice, with soft and glutinous eel mixed with avocado, which he remembered very well.
But he didn't expect to meet his acquaintance again before he even had the eel rice.
Chen Anbang and a few of his colleagues came out of a department store not far from Ginza with small bags and smiles on their faces. Yes, one of the major advantages of going abroad for meetings at this time of year was the ability to approve a lot of foreign exchange to buy some practical small electrical appliances from abroad.
The Chinese people's desire to buy, as well as their ability to learn, was engraved in the blood and bones of Chinese sons and daughters.
"Xiao Chen, don't be sad, there will be another chance next time." A slightly older scholar patted Chen Anbang's shoulder and said.
"Yes, there will be a chance next time." Even though Chen Anbang said so, it was hard to hide the loss on his face; after all, it was not easy to go abroad once in the eighties!
Li Zheng hesitated but walked forward.
"Hello, may I help you?" He used the standard Beijing dialect.
Turning around and seeing Li Zheng, Professor Meng asked hesitantly, "Are you Chinese?"
Li Zheng nodded, "I'm from Shandong City, Haidong Province, and my grandfather was from Beijing, so I speak a little in Beijing dialect."
The group of professors laughed at the words, it was a pleasure to meet a fellow countryman in another country, even if the friend looked a little younger.
"Hahaha, from Haidong Province? My hometown is also from the Haidong Province, the city of Quang, which is considered an old hometown!" Professor Meng said smilingly.
Li Zheng repeated, "Do you need help? Maybe I can help." He thought that he might be able to help China introduce a complete advanced drug production line earlier.
Several professors and scholars naturally did not think that this young man, Li Zheng, could be of any help, but Professor Meng said casually, "Xiao Chen wants to give his wife a recorder to learn English, but he doesn't have enough foreign exchange."
Li Zheng was stunned, foreign exchange? Yes, at that time, foreign exchange abroad was allocated on a per capita basis.
Looking around, Li Zheng saw a flag with a Japanese currency symbol painted on it on a bungalow not far from the department store.
"I might be able to help." Li Zheng said smilingly.
In front of the astonished eyes of the group of professors, he led them all toward the bungalow where the flag was hanging.
"Hey, we didn't meet a crook, did we?" A scholar whispered.
"No. How much do we have? If there was, it has been spent. And that young man's Beijing dialect is quite smooth, so we can't doubt our own compatriots."
With suspicions, they followed Li Zheng to the door of the bungalow.
2 Replies to "C40"
Navleu says: Reply
Li Zheng finds opportunities everywhere!
← C39 ← C41