Allison

For my project, I am writing a fictional story about a scientist who performs a genetics experiment on cloning. The format is different pieces mostly from the main character's book of data and his daughter's journal. The first part of it is a newspaper article that actually happens before the beginning of the story...(it's out of order but everything's listed by day and by date). Although I do not have much posted yet, is it effective to switch perspectives like I do? I am doing this to get better character development and have an actual plot because I could not do this just through the scientist's data book...

“Police began searching a private lab in the vacant forest of Lyndonville, Vermont after suspicious activity was first reported one month ago. The town was disrupted, as flames shot up above a tree top. The area was thoroughly searched, and at first, all that was uncovered was a house and a tree farm in its backyard. But beneath the entire seemingly innocent land plot lies a laboratory of a biochemist, Dr. Benson Rybose. His basement was converted to a lab in which to conduct his experiments. His basement was searched for illegal substances, but all that was found was a bacterial colony, a potato plant farm, and a cage of mice. This odd combination was questioned, and Dr. Rybose was hesitant in saying that he was simply “experimenting growth patterns between the various kingdoms of life”. One police reported there being a file of the same DNA profile for multiple mice, suggesting that there may be cloning activity going on in the laboratory. Nothing can be assumed, so police will keep searching the area.” —April 3, 2009

April 3, 2009 I have a normal family—my mom, little sister Lizzie, dad, my puppy Skipper, and me. I live in a normal house and go to get the newspaper on normal Saturday mornings. Today, I flipped to the front page, expecting, yet again, to see a normal article. But no, I see my father. Great. Of course. Our family is no longer living a normal lifestyle, and every bit of it disgusts me. “Here, mom,” I said with a drag, tossing the paper on the counter. I left the room. My father embarrassed me like no other, and I won’t be able to show my face in school on Monday. I have no more words to write today. Maybe I’ll just try to look back and piece things together by myself.

Day 368 Well, here goes my career; it’s all gone. This may be my last entry. So, I should probably state my conclusion later today, after I analyze my previous data. With all these police searching my lab, I have to keep everything as clean as possible. A trace of anything could be clues to the hidden part of my laboratory, my life. I kept the bacteria, potatoes, and mice all out to be viewed, but everything else has been moved and hidden away. I cannot let the police in on my secret, my family barely even knows about it. But once a cop finds out, the only research I will be doing is from behind bars.

//Dr. Benson Rybose put down his pen, closing his book that he started a year ago, “Mirror Experiment: to challenge our species to reform in a laboratory”. He opened his book to page one, to read and dwell on all of his findings from the start.// Day 1 Homo sapiens are mammals that are the modern human species, also known as “wise men” in Latin. Our species is so incredible, so diverse. No two humans are identical—besides those born from the same mother at the same time, like my wife. I can barely differentiate them when they speak. But if bacteria have the ability to clone themselves every twenty minutes to infect the world in which they live, why can’t animals be cloned naturally? Plants are cloned everyday to provide the Earth with enough food for human consumption. I am about to go beyond the normal dimension and create what has never been made before.

April 1, 2008 So today the bus pulled up to the road, and I shuffled up the winding dirt road and turned into the only driveway on the street-mine. After my half mile walk in total, all I wanted to do was sit on the couch with a bowl of soup and Skipper, even if she licked my face, shed on the couch, and jumped up on my lap. But I stood in front of the porch, knocking, shouting, and repeatedly ringing the doorbell. Nobody’s home? Wrong. Dad is. But yesterday he was so inspired with his new project and he’s probably curled up in his pile of books; his mind is stuck in a timeless land. Finally, I trudged through the puddles around to the basement and pounded my fist on the window. His light went out, and he let me inside. After napping on the couch Lizzie shook my shoulders wildly, “Anna, mom says wake up now or you’ll never be able to sleep tonight!” I rubbed my eyes and squinted across the room so I could faintly see the clock. I had even less time to finish my work! I stomped up the stairs and opened my chem. book to complete my work. I really hate chemistry, but Mom and Dad are trying to convince me to sign up for AP. Too bad they don’t know that I am already taking AP Environmental Science, a class that I will truly enjoy. That reminds me about the awesome article I came across in my free time about the current environment issues. Today’s article was on the shortage of fresh water in other countries. I don’t understand why my parents can’t be interested in something like //this,// one that affects our everyday lives and one that we can actually //see// with our bare eyes. Instead, they really love peeking into super high tech microscopes that are more money than I am worth. And they love cells and atoms and evolution. They should know that even though my genes come from them, they don’t determine the subjects I choose to like…

Day 2 Today in work at the hospital, I was called in to help in the process of creating a petri-dish baby (in vitro). I was given a sample of eggs from the woman and sperm from her husband. My objective was to successfully insert the sperm into the fluid surrounding the egg until it was fertilized. I was very successful, and had it on the first shot. I brought the fertilized egg back to the hospital and the other doctors inserted the egg into the mother-to-be’s uterus for it to grow for nine beautiful months of rapid mitosis. Back in my lab, I still had a collection of eggs that were untouched. I stored these in the freezer for later use, and I was very fortunate to do so. During my studies, I came across a perfect opportunity. A mouse, from the backyard, was captured by the cat. I scooped this mouse up and carried him sweetly into my lab. Billy, the name I picked for him, is actually a girl. How perfect. She is able to reproduce.

April 2, 2008 I slammed my chem book on the floor and drew my attention to my window. Across the lawn I saw a figure by the wood pile out back. Cautiously but frantically, I skipped across the hall to the deck and slid the door open and shut behind me once more. What I thought to be a strange animal on the lawn crawled and pounced on something in the grass. Clasping a bucket over the space, the object then stood up and scurried across the lawn to the basement door. Oh, it’s just Dad. But why on Earth was he in the yard like that? Ever since he was inspired with this new idea, that is unknown to anybody in this house besides himself, he has been more dedicated than I ever saw before: bringing a pad of paper to the dinner table, tucking a pen behind his ear, reading the science section of the newspaper, and fascinating himself with bacteria. He says the current technology is getting to be a handful and that in order to get credit for anything he has to work really fast. But I don’t know what he’s trying to do, yet. I suspect it has something to do with a new medication. His last one was pretty successful, and he said there can always be improvements in that field of science. Well whatever it may be, I’m sure he has a decent reason for his strange behaviors.

Day 3 Before I try to perform any difficult assignment, I must be able to start with the basics. I have a question which will be the basis of my research. Is it possible for me to clone an animal using the normal cloning technique? I am not sure, but I hypothesize that if I can clone a bacteria colony, I will be able to use the same process to clone an animal. I was anxious to see what the outcome of this would be, and I performed some research yesterday on cloning. Nuclear Transfer (cloning) Process **pictures will be added to go with each step
 * 1) Recipient eggs are coaxed to mature in a culture dish. Each has a remnant egg cell called the polar body.
 * 2) The polar bodies and chromosomes of each egg are drawn into a needle. A pipette holds the egg still.
 * 3) Once the chromosomes and polar body are removed, all that remains inside the zona pellucid is cytoplasm.
 * 4) Skin cells called fibroblasts are isolated from the animal to be cloned and grown in culture dishes.
 * 5) An entire skin cell is taken up into a needle, which is again punched through the zona pelucida.
 * 6) The skin cell is injected underneath the zona pelucida, where it remains separate from the egg cytoplasm.
 * 7) Each unjected egg is exposed to an electric shock that fuses with skin cell with the egg cytoplasm.
 * 8) The skin cell’s nucleus, with its genes, enters the egg cytoplasm. Within a few hours, the fused cell begins to divide.

I suspect that after this occurs, it will undergo normal development processes, and it may or may not survive from this point. But this is the basis of the experiment.

April 3, 2008 Lizzie never lies, and she never exaggerates the truth, which surprises me for a ten-year-old girl. But the one thing she loves to do is gossip. Her mouth runs nonstop about everyone and everything. This afternoon, I was perched under a tree in the backyard filling out a worksheet for homework, and she jumped out from behind. “Hey Anna guess what I found out?” Her tone rose, and I knew she wouldn’t give me time to let me guess. “Mom and Dad have a surprise for us. They’re gonna share it at dinner. Apparently, it’s really big and for the whole family! They’re gonna talk about it at dinner! Which is in twenty-five minutes, in case you didn’t know,” Lizzie rambled on. I was definitely not on the same excitement level as her, but I decided to act like I was so she would let me be alone until dinner. Just then, my mom called us inside for dinner. “Benson, come upstairs for dinner” my mom called out at 5:00 pm. So we walked in the house and washed up and started setting the table. “Benson, dinner will be ready soon. Let’s go” she raised her voice now, cupping her hands around her mouth. “Okay Benson, we’re going to eat without you…BENSON” she pounded her fist on the wall leading down to the basement where his lab is. Still no response. Mom said we’d have to postpone our family discussion until tomorrow about this mysterious “surprise”. I can’t remember the last time we didn’t eat together as a family, and in my house, this is a big deal. Some people in our town think we are very exclusive people. They give us squints when they see us turn down a street with no other houses besides ours. So we tend to brush that aside and stick together as a family. It’s not that we don’t like anyone here, because we do try to get along. But then again, I guess our unusually high value for families does add to this perception that other people have.

Day 4 I am beginning my experiment process with bacteria. If I can clone a colony of bacteria, I will be able to use that or a similar technique to clone other types of life as well. I set up a table under a microscope of two Petri dishes. One had the mother bacteria that had just cloned itself, and the other one was the victim about to be cloned. I extracted the DNA from the cytoplasm and inserted it to the other cytoplasm just in time. I watched the life cycle of a bacterium and then sampled its DNA. Although I expected them to be identical, it was intriguing to actually see successful results. I was one step closer to my goal. One step closer to see just the results I want. The good thing about bacteria is the length of its life cycle: twenty minutes. This works really well for a quick experiment to test a process. I think I will perform this experiment nine more times to perfect my method. Then, I will be ready to go. During the time lapse of twenty minutes, I observed the colony on the plate in front of me—I witnessed the beginning of the bacteria when it was fully grown, and the asexual reproduction that took place. I tested the DNA and it all came down to the last sequence! Parental ATCGGATTACGAATCGCTAGG Offspring ATCGGATTACGAATCGCTAGG This is noted as a success, and now I can move forth to clone a mammal.

April 4, 2008 Lizzie and I were out on the lawn this afternoon, playing catch in between the forest of trees in our yard, blocking all but bits of sunlight to shine through. “So Anna, have you thought about what the surprise can be?” Lizzie asked casually. Clearly, it’s been on her mind all day long. “Nope, Liz. I haven’t even thought about it. But now that you mention it, let’s think this through. I think it’s…solar panels!” I said back. “No way. Only //you// want solar panels Anna!” She shot back. “True, but if you think about it, it would benefit our whole family, and it would be a good way to conserve energy, and Dad would love that a lot. He wouldn’t have to worry about leaving all his equipment on, you know? That stuff racks up our bills!” I was decently proud at the way I thought this through, and I was pretty sure that I was right. I begged my parents for solar panels just last year, and they never gave me a flat-out “no” for an answer. Still, solar panels were a possibility. “Um, okay, but I still think it’s something fun that would make us all happy! Dad seemed pretty happy” She said. “Very true, but nowadays, nothing makes Dad happy that’s outside of his lab!” I laughed under my breath, wondering why he still hasn’t told the family what he’s been up to. “Yeah, Dad is being a little…” she was interrupted by the swinging of the front door. Dad skipped down the steps. He snapped one yellow glove into place on his left hand and the other was dangling from his white lab coat blotted with brown stains. “DAD! Catch!” Lizzie shouted, chucking the ball with full force at him. He ducked then raised his right hand, caught the ball, and tossed it on the grass right in front of him. “Thanks, sweetie. Maybe later. Can’t you see I’m busy?” He said, dashing across the lawn. Then he was gone behind the tree trunks that lined the pebbled driveway. “See what I mean?” I asked, nodding in the direction in which he disappeared. “He never does anything with us anymore! He never hangs out with us after dinner, on Friday nights, or on weekends at all,” she started. “Right. And when was the last time we actually talked to him?” I asked. Then Dad came running back up the driveway with three packages carefully tucked underneath his arms, his most prized possessions, whatever they were. I asked him what he had there, but I wasn’t expecting an answer. Not like he even gave one to me. I tried to throw the ball back to Lizzie but her attention was caught by something else. She spotted the baby birds chirping in the branches overhead, all together as one family. She envied the tiny new family resting in the nest. That made me think, how our lives would be if we were that close. But no, Dad’s the only one who coops himself up in a cage, away from everyone else.

Day 5 Today in the mail, I received all the necessary parts to put a machine together that may be both controversial and life-changing. When finished, it will become an artificial uterus, a womb that is theoretical and can allow for extracorporeal pregnancy. This means that I can grow an embryo/fetus outside a female’s body that would normally internally carry a fetus until birth. I repeated my previous cloning process today in a petri dish. I have taken a sample of blood from my youngest daughter, Elizabeth Rybose, and I stored it until the proper time to extract the DNA. Then, I took my frozen sample from the hospital and removed the DNA from the lady’s egg and inserted Lizzie’s blood DNA. I am very uncertain of the outcome. But first, I observed the Petri dish to make sure that the transformation took place. I repeated this process in two more Petri dishes in the event that one was fatal. But for today, there is no way of knowing. I understand the consequences of this project, how it disobeys the laws of my religion and society, and I do not mean any harm. I am conducting a challenging experiment and it is for pure enjoyment. I have been working on it only on the side of my other work. However, this top secret process is only exposed to myself, and I will never use it in front of another human being in the fear of being arrested. Nobody, not even my family, has the slightest idea of what I am trying to do. And they never will. As much as I value them, this is one thing I must keep to myself. I hope they respect my privacy as I would for them as well.

April 5, 2008 I never listened to the Beach Boys’ //Kokomo// more than I did today! All along, solar panels were on my mind for the surprise from my parents, but really they planned a family vacation! Well, it was Dad’s idea. I can’t believe how wrong Lizzie and I were about our father! He planned a family vacation to Key West for the family! But it’s not for winter break or the summer, but Christmas break! I was kind of shocked to find out that the surprise is something that we can’t have for a whole nine months! But hey, better late than never I suppose. The only thing is, I wonder why they planned it so early in advance. And he only held out three fake tickets, to show that yes we will be going there but no, not right now. Nonetheless, I’m relieved that we will be able to have some quality family time without having to worry about any more science experiments that will ruin our lives.

Day 10 Much progress has been made, and all looks successful. I transferred the fertilized egg to the artificial uterus, and I have two extra plates already made up to use if something should go wrong. The placement on the wall went very smoothly, and now all I do is wait and watch the new life grow.

April 10, 2008 I know even I said that December is many months away, but that time will fly, and it’s not too early to start dreaming of vacation, right? And it didn’t help that the photo album from five years ago was sitting on the coffee table, begging me to open it. I flipped to a random page, examining our faces next to Mickey Mouse in Orlando, Florida. Lizzie and I were leaning towards him, me on the left side of the photo and she on the right. My dark brown hair was in a long braid to the side, and Lizzie’s curly blonde pig tails looked bouncy, even when she was at that age. I flipped to the next picture. It was the one taken on the Splash Mountain ride just before the colossal dip. Mom and I have the exact same face—bright blue eyes popping out of their sockets and hands straight up in the air, while Lizzie has her eyes covered and Dad has an arm around her shoulder. Lizzie ran in the room, “Ooh I wanna see it again!” she shouted and smacked herself on my lap. “Oh, so //you// were the one who dug this out from the closet, I knew it was you all along,” I told her. Together we flipped through the pages until the sun was buried completely behind all the trees, and it was only early evening. Mom came to sit down next to us, and she brushed her hand over the next photo, of our whole family sitting on a park bench making funny faces. “This was a great vacation, wasn’t it, girls?” “Yeah, but this next one’s going to be even better! Right, Mom?” Lizzie asked. “I’m sure the three of us can still have a good time without him,” Mom reassured us. “What…?” Lizzie’s and my jaws dropped simultaneously, and we slammed the book shut. That was that. Nobody said another word for the rest of the night.

** Lyndonville scientists made life possible for doubtful family ** A couple living in the _____area left the hospital with disappointment nine months ago after being told that their hopes of having a baby were quickly fading. Dr. Rybose and his colleagues from Lyndonville, VT made heroic contributions to the future of this family. They completed the task of in vitro fertilization, a non-natural process in which a Petri dish is used for fertilizing an egg. The doctors injected the sperm to the fluid in the dish and the zygote was inserted into the woman’s body. Today, nine months and three days later, the baby boy was born, happy and healthy. When spoken to earlier, the couple said “We can never be thankful enough. This is truly a miracle that we were never expecting. Thank you to those doctors that made this possible.” -//April 14, 2008// Day 14 Reading today’s paper has given me hope and inspiration that I can use towards my own individual experiment. Technology these days is both mind-bottling and exciting. All these new methods and results are being created, and I will be even more heroic when I find a safe time to inform the public of my project. April 14, 2008 Today after school, I went to my teacher for help in chemistry, and he never helps me well, but I decided to go anyway. At first, he was busy speaking with this guy I have never seen before that seemed to be pretty smart. Then Mr. ______ told him to give me a hand with the chem work. We sat down at the desk together and began. “Alright, well what’s the problem here? Is chem not your strongest subject?” he flashed a quick smile and slid my paper towards him, picking it up just so it blocked half of his face. I felt like an idiot, but then he said, “Oh okay, not bad. Not bad, but you have three moles here, you see…?” his voice trailed off and I paid close attention to every word he said. At first I assumed he was one of those typical hot conceited guys that everyone just loves just because of his curly blonde, highlighted hair and his deep brown eyes. But instead, he seemed to be one of those studious kids that gets A’s on every test. Something about him made me love chemistry. Or maybe just chemistry with //him//. After I finished my sheet, with his help, we sat there talking about everything—sports and school to food and summer. But then I had to leave. “Hey, thanks for helping me. You’re a great tutor, and I learned a lot today!” I said as I twirled my pencil in my finger. “It was really no problem. I can help you more, if you want. I mean I do have…”his voice was caught by his backpack when he buried his head in it, rummaging through all the loose papers until he found the one he wanted. “…I need NHS hours so helping you is no problem,” he said, finishing his statement. With the blank sheet he had, he neatly made a fold down the center and ripped it in half. He gave me one and he kept the other. He wrote “_______” and I gave him my name and number. Then I left to go home. He was probably the highlight of my day, of my week. Thank you to myself for being a dummy in chem. Dad was also happy today. I got off the bus and there was my father waiting, even in the pouring rain, with an opened umbrella over his head and a closed one in an extended arm for me. “Hey Di. How was your day?” he patted my back and turned around to wave at the bus driver. I raised an eyebrow at his attitude, but shook it off and didn’t complain. Di. I don’t remember the last time he called me that. It used to be my nickname since I was about um three. It warmed my heart to hear him call me that again. “It was great, thanks. Oh and thanks for walking here in the rain to come and get me! What’s going on with you, Dad?” I asked, hoping he would say anything besides his experiment. He took my backpack off my shoulders and carried it all the way home. “Just fantastic. There’s an article about the Petri dish baby in the paper,” he said. “Congrats, Dad. That’s awesome news. You’re gonna be famous” I said. “You mean more famous,” he said as he chuckled and turned away. I brushed away his comment and we walked home for the rest of the way in silence. Part Two: Suspicion Day 30 So far, so good. Everything seems to be under control here in my artificial womb. I continue to add daily nutrients to help the baby mature, but as it grows, it needs more and more food, and I need to pay more attention to it. From here on out, the slightest mistake could result in major changes. Also, since the Petri dish baby, I’ve had to do more outside research for my company job. And since my office is upstairs, I had to set an alarm so I know when to add more to the womb. So far, it’s working really well. I just need to continue this for the next few months. Part Three: The Rybose family had their empty suitcases out on the floor and the three of them were gathering armfuls of clothes, shoes, shampoo, and other items necessary for their trip. Benson was busy in his office, with two major projects at his hands. His watch began to beep, and he switched off his light and sprinted down the stairs. “Damn, I’m late!” he mumbled, stumbling over Skipper on the way down. He had to fuss with the key to finally open the lock to the secret underground part of his lab. He rain over to the table with all the nutrients and uncovered a small blanket where everything was all ready and kept. He tossed the blanket across his lab to the counter but it missed, landing on the incubator next to it. He picked up the bottles and added them to the womb. He noticed the fetus’s heartbeat was unusually high, and assumed it was because the fluid it at an unsafely low level. Dr. Rybose finished his work quickly then ran back upstairs to his office. Back in the basement, the blanket reached its maximum temperature on the incubator, and caught on fire. The whole lab shot up in flames that eventually escaped through the open sunroof that was hidden by trees so nobody could see in the lab. The trees spread the fire wildly, and within minutes sirens were rushing down the street, straight to the backyard.

Plot for the rest of the story!!! It's all planned out, I just have to write it. · Day 14: newspaper article about the hospital and how he did a Petri dish baby. Anna discovers that she has a crush on a boy who likes biology · Begin part two: Suspicion o Day 30 April 30 § Sets alarms to know when to add more fluids and nutrients to the womb § Anna begins to have thoughts that her father’s experiment has gone on too long. She begins to take up an interest in biology, still not chemistry o Day 40 May 10 § Birthday celebration for Anna § Converted his lab because some people might get suspicious o Day 50 May 20 § Report on fetus § Anna becomes suspicious and starts to explore in his lab o Day 60 May 30 § Anna hangs out in the basement with her sister o Day 72 June 11 § Anna goes into the lab with her sister but her father catches them and they get kicked out. They think it’s awesome and want to go back. Lizzie was the reason they got caught o Day 90 June 29 § Anna goes back in the lab late at night alone and looks around. Only finds normal lab equipment o Day 110 July 19 § Anna finds the office and sees everything that her dad has been hiding from her o Day 111 July 20 § Anna runs and hides, tells her guy, they go in tree house. She is now keeping things from her family and they begin to suspect something-he thinks she knows o Day 130 August 8 § Her dad catches her in his office again and she hides but he sees her and then he decides to fill her in on everything else and then they keep it a secret from the rest of the family. o Day 150 August 28 § She accidentally tells Lizzie o Day 170 Sept. 17 § Lizzie accidentally tells her friends at school o Day 190 Oct 7 § The cops come to investigate the lab. They don’t find anything · Part three o The baby will be born soon, the whole family knows, on the night of the baby’s birth the father has to stay downstairs. Before the baby could be born, the other lab equipment catches on fire because he had a blanket over a flammable object for the baby when she would be born and the cops come and arrest him for the illegal activity and find all his stuff. then they can all go on vacation together (because the father was going to cancel on the family to be with his experiment. his original goal was to have everyone out of the house when the baby was being born)