"Power Bank..."

Upon hearing Lin Li's statement, Wang Qiang's expression became somewhat awkward.

As the queen of witty remarks, she wanted to say something to reclaim her spotlight.

However, after moving her lips a few times, she suddenly found herself at a loss for words.

Lin Li didn't notice his disciple's inner drama at this moment and continued:

"Xiao Wang, keep following up on Hua Xiaomo's situation.

We had agreed on a seven-day observation period, of which three days have already passed. If there is no abnormality in the next few days...

Give her a fixed electronic wristband, and then ask Colonel Lin for a few people to appropriately allow her some chances to get some fresh air. You and Colonel Lin can discuss the specifics of her activity range at that time."

When it came to the main tasks, Wang Qiang was still very attentive and quickly noted Lin Li's arrangement in the experiment memo:

"No problem."

Afterward, Lin Li thought of something and asked:

"By the way, since I'm rarely here at your lab... has there been any new progress in the research on spiritual energy?"

Wang Qiang nodded:

"I was about to tell you, our team has indeed made some unique discoveries, follow me."

After speaking, she led Lin Li to a test bench.

The test bench was covered with several groups of sealed containers, among which several glass vessels were laid out.

These glass vessels contained gas and moss, and some had small white mice living inside.

Lin Li noticed that these little white mice seemed to be more robust than usual, and their fur was very dense.

Additionally, several precise instruments were attached to the inner walls of the containers, with flashing indicator lights showing they were continually recording various data inside the containers.

Wang Qiang entered several passwords on the file storage rack beside the console and took out an experiment report about a centimeter thick.

She then handed these experiment reports to Lin Li and pointed to the glass vessels, explaining:

"Captain Lin, the 11% unidentified gas we found when we first arrived at the Damo Realm can now be confirmed to be spiritual energy.

Moreover, based on our tests, spiritual energy greatly benefits the growth and development of plants and animals.

For example, these little white mice we brought from home have now increased their size by 20% and their fur has become very lush, all due to the spiritual energy infused atmosphere.

Additionally, we conducted an experiment where we removed the TERC component from the mice, and three days later we observed a skewed HSC lineage potential phenotype.

That is to say, spiritual energy can to some extent promote the production of telomerase in organisms!"

Upon hearing the word telomerase.

Lin Li's pupils contracted heavily once more.

He took a deep breath, focused his mind, and carefully reviewed the experiment report produced by Wang Qiang's team.

As biology students should know.

The cells of the human body do have a limit on division.

Aside from germ cells, nerve cells, and cancer cells, the division limit of regular human cells is generally about 50-60 times.

And cell division, is controlled by a substance called telomere.

As is widely known.

Telomeres are located at both ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes and consist of highly repetitive DNA sequences (for humans, TTAGGG) and telomere-binding proteins.

Currently, it's discovered that telomere-binding proteins mainly have 6 subunits, which are TRF1, TRF2, TIN2, Rap1, POT1, and TPP1, together forming the telomere protection protein complex.

Because the direction of DNA replication must be from the 5' to the 3' direction, every time DNA is replicated, which is every cell division, telomeres shorten a bit.

Telomere length in human cells is about 8000-10000bp, dividing every 2.4-2.6 years, shortening telomeres by 30–100bp each division.

Once telomeres are completely exhausted and can no longer shorten, the cell can no longer divide.

Cells are thus led to apoptosis.

Scientists thus deduced that the human life limit is 130 years.

Thus.

A person's aging process is actually their telomeres getting shorter.

And when talking about telomeres, one must mention another concept:

Telomerase.

Telomerase was first discovered in cervical cancer cells by Professor Morin from Maple Country—the notorious old pervert who filmed students' panties with a global top ten precision experimental camera in a lab—in 1989.

And in 2009, there was a significant breakthrough.

The reason the three Nobel Prize winners in Biology and Medicine in 2009 won was due to discovering the mechanism of telomerase protecting chromosomes.

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that can extend the ends of telomeres, composed mainly of RNA and protein.

It contains primer-specific recognition sites, using its RNA as a template, synthesizes telomere DNA, and adds it to the chromosome ends to extend telomeres, thus extending cell life, potentially even making them...

Immortal.

Of course.

The scientific community's current understanding of telomerase is still shallow, only ascertaining its apparent effect on aging, lacking a mature method to produce and activate it in large amounts.

Once the telomerase-related codes are cracked, watching Conan's finale in this lifetime shouldn't be a problem.

They might even see the Chinese team make it to the World Cup?

Haha.....

Back to the laboratory.

If, as Wang Qiang said, spiritual energy indeed can stimulate telomerase production.

At least, it could explain why cultivators have a significantly high lifespan.

The lifespan of those in the Qi Cultivation Stage is only slightly higher than ordinary people.

Even cultivators at the Qi Cultivation Ninth Layer rarely live past ninety before their energy and blood dry up.

However, once breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment Stage occurs, the lifespan of cultivators keeps increasing.

For instance, Wei Siming, once at the Foundation Establishment Ninth Layer, would likely have no problem living to be one hundred seventy or eighty years if he didn't attempt to break through the Foundation Establishment Barrier.

Core Formation Realm and Nascent Soul Realm are even more extreme.

Rumors say that large cultivators at the Nascent Soul Realm can live five to six hundred years without much pressure.

In some folklore, tales about so-called millennial Nascent Soul Old Monsters are still often heard.

For example, certain famous long-distance runners with the last name Han, or a pockmarked individual with the surname Wang, or mysterious figures named Luo Yinglong, and so on....

Overall, after reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage.

The lifespan of cultivators is already beyond the range of human beings.

But from a telomere perspective.

These cultivators generated large amounts of activated telomerase while breaking through the realm barriers.

Thus reversing telomere attrition, increasing the limit of cell division times, achieving a lifespan far surpassing ordinary people.

This could indeed be logically explained— or at least, this is what current assumptions about telomerase are, just scientists haven't found that kind of α substance that can activate telomerase, while spiritual energy directly accomplished it.

Or in some sense.....

Would the reason scientists on Earth haven't found this α substance even after over a decade of effort be the absence of spiritual energy on Earth?

Thinking of this.

Lin Li couldn't help but grip the report tightly.

If this is indeed the case.

The importance of the Damo Realm will be elevated immensely once more!

Of course.

All the above are still baseless speculation and even contain a degree of subjective bias.

To confirm the accuracy of these speculations, the plant life team... or rather, the entire Life Experiment Base still has a very long way to go.

Following this, he took a deep breath and asked Wang Qiang:

"Xiao Wang, does your team have any other discoveries regarding spiritual energy?"

Wang Qiang responded with a bright smile, revealing a pair of little tiger teeth:

"Yes, indeed!"

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