Dawn of the 13th Era

Genes And Mutation

Walking down the streets back to his hostel, Orion felt his stomach grumble, he held his tummy and frowned, thought about how long he had gone without eating already, literally skipped lunch and dinner.

‘No this won’t do, I have to get home and make some dishes then have a rest, I'll think about what to do tomorrow’.

After getting to the quarters, he stopped at the spot he fell the day before. Nothing seemed suspicious, only Mary would probably know something actually happened there since he had cleaned up the area.

He walked to his own room, a single room with a shower and toilet and cooked up a feast after which he went back to sleep like a log, daydreaming about what his future would look like.

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Stopping the alarm, Orion woke up filled with enthusiasm for the day as he took his bathe then picked up his backpack, wore his signature hoodie and a little mask over his face to avoid the attention brought by his scars, humming a song as he made his way to school.

Emma who was looking out from the window with clear displease at the culprit responsible for waking him up was shocked out of his soul when he saw the usually gloomy Orion brimming with so much joy that he actually took the initiative to sing in the morning!

“Shit, I must be daydreaming better go back to sleep for a while more to get off the hangover”

Meanwhile Orion, took the 30 minutes bus to the school premises, walked down to the lecture theater where the lecture he had planned to skip before was holding.

Walking into the lecture hall, he sat down at the very back, the closest seat to the door then messaged Jerry for his whereabouts.

As time went on he thought back to the light clusters.

‘If my guess is right and I need to focus on them to see it then if I just move around without the intention to see it I might just be able to see normally' he thought since staring at the light balls seemed to wear him out, they irritated his eyes after staring at them for long, he would prefer to avoid looking at them instead.

Just as Orion was engrossed in a totally different world of himself the lecturer moved to the podium and said.

“For those of you who still remember, last time we talked about the evolution of animals and the influence of genes on evolution.”

“Today we’ll be building up on what I taught in the last class so if you don’t remember it’ll do you good to quickly refresh on that”

“Ugh, here we go again” Orion groaned in displeasure and decided to focus a bit and peek at the balls of light in the lecturer if there would be any differences but--

“Yup, they are all humans, they just like torturing fellow humans that’s all”

“In the history of the Earth, many different types of organisms have been created and wiped out with each of them evolving in a direction that meets the needs of the environment for them to survive”

“For a certain specie to be totally wiped out it means the environment has changed beyond their tolerance range and the tolerance range for every specie is very different depending on their path of evolution”

“Some organisms are unable to live if the temperature of the environment changes by 10*c but if the temperature of the environment changes by 30*c some species will still survive, although it's a small number that'll actually adapt to the changes then propagate again over time”

“In this case, it is reasonable to deduce that if the Earth changes in an extreme range, numerous species currently on Earth will face the threat of mass extinction but some will still acclimatize and develop organs, body parts and systems that will enable them to survive in the new Earth.”

“And in the case of all living organisms, their tolerance range depends on their genes which are the causes of our very existence, cells are the building block of life but genes are the very reason for the existence of cells.”

“They govern all activities in the body, all functions and behaviors exhibited are the results of our gene activities from inside the nucleus. An organism does not move away from heat to cool its body if the gene does not give it the instruction.”

“If the body detects a situation where the environment is unfavorable the gene will issue the instruction to the hormones and cells in the body which will react according to the instruction given by the genes.”

“Therefore it can be deduced that the tolerance range of every organism is determined by their genes and the evolutionary path of every organisms are also determined by their genes such that all successful organisms able to adapt and survive requires genes capable of responding to the changes in the environment.”

“In this case the reason why some families, genus and species are so successful is because the preceding organisms they evolved from developed in a pattern extremely favorable to the environment compared to others in the same situation and rise above them.”

“Just like the dinosaurs were able to survive the great Permian extinction that wiped out about 90% of all species across the Earth then develop to a point they were able to suppress and entire era for over 186 million years because they were able to react quickly and develop after the Permian extinction.”

“Humans also in this category are able to suppress the entire Earth because we developed in a new direction, a direction other animals were unable to develop in which is our brain.”

“We may not have muscle power like the giant apes, huge body like mammoths or sharp claws like the tigers but simply because we were able to develop a complex brain structure we overcame all difficulties and rose above all other creatures on the Earth.”

“Alright that will be all for today, we will continue our discussion another day any questions?”

Just when the student were preparing to leave a girl raised her hand from the front row eliciting silent murmurs of displeasure from the students.

“Sir, if the dinosaurs could fall after such a long time of domination it means humans aren’t entirely free either what are the plans regarding this issue from scientists in the world?”

The lecturer placed the books in his hands on the podium, removed his glasses and took a small handkerchief out to clean it then looked at the girl and replied

“Of course there have been many discussions and arguments regarding this issue but I can just tell you to leave it to the leaders as even I can’t address much regarding that, okay that’s all class dismissed.”

With that he took his books and left the lecture hall.

Orion sat still for a moment deep in thoughts about the lecture when he saw Jerry waving to him then decided to forget about all matters and first perform a fitting dissection on his dear friend.