Yahweh couldn’t wait to show his experiment to the teachers. The assignment was not an easy one for any of the three students in extraterrestrial biology. Even though all competitive drive and ego satisfaction had been eliminated in forgotten history, a small amount of personal satisfaction sparked his impatience to reveal his discovery. The student wondered if this was the answer the teachers had been looking for when the assignment was given. A topic such as this had never been offered in the recorded past. Yahweh had looked. Not that the student would have pirated any of the research. That was strictly forbidden and would result in reassignment to some hideous pursuit in waste management or some other equally disgusting endeavor. No, the student was honorable. He thought it would have been nice, however, to see where others had failed or had left off. There just wasn’t anything in the data banks that was even remotely related.
The assignment was simply stated. It seemed easy enough when given to the three, but that was always the ruse. In general, the easier the assignment sounded, the harder was the task. This had turned out to be no different. And the prize for successfully completing the task should have been another tip off. The successful experiment would be named for the winner. In an ancient culture with few new things, this indeed would be something. There was just enough personal ego left in the students genetic profile, done purposeful by the teachers to stimulate creativity, for him to think “they will name it after me.”
The problem to be solved involved an alien solar system where similar planets were all experiencing the same difficulties in evolving life forms. On these planets a certain level of development was achieved, only to find it could not be maintained after a couple of generations. The developing line would die out. There were other similar lines being evolved but the random mutations in critical systems were not happening fast enough to ensure viability of the species. All three students had been given the general dilemma as well as a comprehensive analysis of the genetic profile of this life form as it currently existed. Also provided was all of the available substances on the plant they had each selected. The teachers hoped that due to the similarities between the three planets and several thousand others just like them that a solution to one would apply to all.
Yahweh couldn’t believe the other two were concentrating their efforts on intellect. Although, he had to admit that there was defiantly a shortage in that department as far as he could tell. But the problem seemed to be something else. The student had to create a mental picture of this foreign protoplasm and address the issue from a molecular basis rather than a functional one. As he ran the specific codes over and over, a disturbing constant seemed to be affecting survival at the identical juncture of evolution. But these beings, if you could even call them that at their current stage, were so different from any biologic form that had been previously studied, the question was how to fix it.
Their own race of beings used very similar genetic codes, with a few distinct differences. There were no sex gametes in their own structure of DNA, only one. Reproduction occurred by fission, but with carefully adjusted chromosomes to produce a being designed for a specific need. Yahweh was for example designed for scientific study and his personal inclinations had led him to extraterrestrial biology. These alien beings reproduction required a combination of male and female genetic codes. This arrangement allowed for much more diversity in genetic expression which hopefully gave more viable options for survival. The evidence collected over ions of their time suggested it had been largely successful. Yahweh’s culture had been able to trace the development from single celled animals, to more complex structures. From things that swam in the water to ones that finally emerged onto land. Some evolved wings as a defense mechanism and flew, but not all. At a certain biologic developmental line some became mobile, upright, walking on two legs. The intellectual mutations started advancing exponentially. This was where the current issue existed. Despite this long journey, the bipeds could not survive past this stage to move forward. The student Yahweh had found the problem fairly easily, the solution was more difficult but here is was ready to present.
The problem was based in generating enough energy to support the level of evolutionary development on every cellular level. The advances in intellect and the increased demands of being bipedal drained every cell, every system of available adenine triphosphate, the basic energy unit produced in every cell. That’s where the other two students went wrong. As they increased intellect, energy needs increased as well. In every one of these primitive organic beings was an organelle that produced the energy required to fuel the entire being. The name the teachers had given to this structure was mitochondria. It was the same organ within Yahweh’s own biologic makeup that fueled him but so differently.
Yahweh had figured out that this organelle called mitochondria reproduced by its own set of genetic material. The diploid reproduction involving male and female variable contributions that worked so well in intelligence mutations was counter-productive on the energy level. The mutation rate to produce energy simply could not keep up with the demand. A simple thought wishing that he could just replace the faulty diploid genetic reproduction with his own haploid sequence solved the problem. After extensive manipulation tailoring amino acid bases to an alien system, it was accomplished. Multiple trials revealed the same stable outcome.
Now all that remains to be seen is if it will be effective in the actual species. A bio ship will be sent to the fifth planet from a sun in that solar system and we will implant this modified genetic mitochondrial DNA into the biped. If it proves to be successful, we will use this technology on other planets as well. If it is successful, we shall indeed name the success after the student. And Yahweh will be its name.