Jason and Bisco discuss biogenetic research

[Kathleen Dunn <kdunn@cae.wisc.edu>]

Players: Jason, Bisco.


High Field Laboratory 

The room is your average research laboratory, the walls lined with 
  countertops and drawers below. The majority of the floor space is 
  dominated by the high field electromagnet, the dewars of liquid helium 
  to cool it, and the computers used to control sample exchange within 
  the magnet's field coils. A sign over the door reads 'Magnet on when 
  flashing', and warning stickers about the effect of magnetic fields, 
  and the international symbol for "Biohazard" decorate the door below a 
  sign proclaiming this to be the High Field Lab. 
Contents: 
Jason 

Bisco: Her skin has a waxy, almost metallic sheen to it; her hair is the flat 
  black that indicates a poor dye job; her eyes, behind wire rimmed 
  glasses, are the unnatural blue of colored contacts. Of only moderate 
  height and pudgy build, her form is largely hidden in baggy jeans and 
  a faded sweatshirt bearing the letters "M I T". 

Bisco stands on a step ladder, leaning over to slide something on a long 
  rod into the tall container of liquid helium. She lowers the rod 
  slowly, billows of cold steam spilling down the sides of the tank. 

Jason walks up to the door of the High Field Lab. He checks his 
  notebook, then looks at the number on the door. Finding what he was 
  looking for, he gives a brief once-over to the variety of warning 
  stickers on the door, and pops it open a crack, looking inside. 

Bisco's glance flickers to the door, brows drawing together. She pauses 
  with the rod only partway inserted. "Can I help you?" Her tone is 
  preoccupied, bordering on hostile. 

Jason gives a quizzical glance about the room, his eyes finally settling 
  on it's lone occupant. He responds. "Hi. Yes, I was sent here looking 
  for a physics researcher by the name of Julie..." 
Jason looks at his notes quickly, then adds, "Julie Wiessner. Are you 
  Julie?" 
Jason corrects himself... "Meissner... God, that professor writes like 
  my doctor..." 

Bisco smirks faintly. "He is a doctor. Yeah, that's me, just a sec while 
  I finish this." She looks back to the dewar, and resumes the sample 
  insertion. The clouds of cold mist roil over the sides again, and 
  across the floor, cool but dry around your ankles. 

Jason nods to Bisco, not wanting to interrupt whatever it is that she is 
  doing at the moment. Jason enters the room, shutting the door 
  carefully behind him, and immediately moves over, out of her way. He 
  begins looking about at the lab and it's conents. 
Jason sets his shoulder bag down on one of the few empty potions of 
  desk, and removes a pen from the side of it. He is holding in his hand 
  a spiral-ring notebook, and he reviews some of what has already been 
  written in it. 

The lab benches are covered with glass dishes, some filled with a 
  substance remarkably similar to red jello. A notebook lays open on the 
  counter, to a page containing a series of arcane symbols somehow 
  describing data. A graph has been pasted into the book, as well, 
  showing a steadily declining population density for sample M354. 

Bisco finishes the slow insertion, then screws down the locking cap at 
  the top of the tank. She descends the ladder, and taps a few things 
  into the computer. "There." She turns and looks to Jason. "Meissner. 
  Julie Meissner. And you are...?" 

Jason: You see a young man, in his early 20s. He is tall (about 6-2), and 
  somewhat pleasant looking, with brown hair, almost shoulder-length, 
  wide at the ends, and a small brown mustache, which goes down the 
  sides of his mouth a bit. His face is long and full, and usually has a 
  neutral expression on it, as a man who is taking everything in. He is 
  a bit stockier than average, and when he moves, he does so in a 
  methodical, loping manner. He wears blue jeans and a black T-shirt, 
  with a brown bomber jacket over it, a bit worn but in good condition 
  yet. Worn sneakers are his choice of footwear. He carries a black 
  leather shoulder bag, with a few pens visible in a pouch on the side. 
  This person does not inspire any sort of fear or awe in anyone at 
  all... he just seems to be an ordinary guy. 

Jason holds out his hand to Julie. "Slade. Jason Slade. From the 
  ESU Observer. I'm doing some research into the work of a Mr. 
  Christopher Tyler, the guy that got that big biogen research grant... 
  I was told you are handling the work from the physics end?" He words 
  this as a question, as if seeking confirmation. 

Bisco takes his hand and shakes it firmly. Her hands are a bit cool from 
  being so close to the cryofluid. "Yeah, that's right. He grows the bio 
  samples, I do the measurements." 

Jason does a little salute with two fingers after the handshake... its a 
  greeting thing he does. He starts writing a bit in his notebook, and 
  goes on..."Is it all right if I ask you a few questions about the 
  work, Ms. Meissner?" 

Bisco nods, "Sure." She lets her hands fall to her sides, then sets them 
  on her hips, then shoves them into her pockets, as if she can't decide 
  what to do with her appendages. "What did you want to know?" 

Jason looks Julie in the eye, not with a harsh or confrontational gaze, 
  but with an interested, curious look, as he asks his questions. "Chris 
  Tyler recieved his grant for biogenetics work. What specifically is he 
  researching?" 

Bisco's smile is wry, self-mocking. "You want the full blown 
  explanation, or in English?" 

Jason grins a bit at this and says, "I probably could keep up with a 
  little bit of the full-blown part... but it's probably better to stick 
  to English... it's been a year or three since my last Physics course." 

Bisco nods, with a brief smile, as if expecting this reaction. 
  "Basically, we're studying the effect of magnetic field on mutant 
  genes." There is a subtle emphasis on the word 'we'. 

Jason is pretty good at picking up subtle things, and nods as he rapidly 
  scribbles into his notebook. As he is doing this, he says, "Ah, 
  apologies for using the wrong pronoun. This is a joint project, then?" 
Jason thinks . o O (Mutant genes? Maybe this assignment isn't half as 
  boring as I thought it was going to be...) 

Bisco shrugs, "Not your fault. I'm just a lowly grad student, after all, 
  its his name on the grant. His name that brings in all the money. Us 
  peons just do all the work, that's all." She smiles. 

Jason returns to the look in the eye, and asks, "Mutant genetics is a 
  hot-button issue nowadays. What, in particular, are you hoping to 
  find?" 

Bisco says "Well, there's been alot of hot work done lately. Some 
  findings from Stanford show that the statistical occurrence of 
  mutations can be increased by subjecting the cells to high magnetic 
  fields. Of course, they's only studied really simple organisms, 
  ameobas or paramecia, I think." 
Bisco says "We're hoping to confirn their findings, and extend it to 
  other, more complex organisms." 

Jason follows up with, "What type of genetic material will you be 
  studying? Will there be any human genetic samples used?" Jason 
  maintains the postivite, curious look on his face, in order so that 
  Julie does not interpret these questions as an attack, or an attempt 
  to trap her into saying anything controversial. 

Bisco says "Oh, well. Human trials are really a long way down the road. 
  I mean, if we're lucky, we'll have some rat trials before the money 
  runs out in a couple years. But the government is super touchy about 
  *any* reasearch involving human tissue."" 

Jason continues to scribble away in his notebook. Certainly, an answer 
  he was glad to hear, though he tries not to let on about that. He 
  continues onward with, "What stage of the research are you in now. The 
  grant money has just come through... how far has this project come 
  along before then? Or is it just starting?" 

Bisco relaxes gradually, more comfortable once she's started talking. 
  "Well, we did have to produce some preliminary studies in order to 
  prove we could do the experiments. Our main advantage here is that our 
  magnet," She nods towards the behemoth in the middle of the room, "can 
  go to much higher fields than Stanford's." 
Bisco says "We'll be starting out with the similar things like the 
  amoebas, but we'd really like to focus on viruses and bacteria." 

Jason notes this, and examines the gigantic magnet as Julie points to 
  it. He asks, "Can you give me an example of the type of study you 
  might run?" He thinks to himself... 'because I'd still like to know 
  what they're getting at with this project...' 

Bisco nods. "Sure. The simplest example would be to insert a sample into 
  the magnet core," she points generally to the space between two disks 
  about 3' in diameter. "We expose each batch to a different field, for 
  a different length of time. THen we have to wait, and see how many 
  mutate." 

Jason ahs, playing the part of dumb reporter, while thinking that this 
  study has a lot of potential implications. He decides that now would 
  be a good time to see if he's just being paranoid... asking Julie, 
  "Okay... about the grant itself... what do you know about the Fischer 
  Institute, the company which is bankrolling your project?" 

Bisco says "Wellll," She draws the word out. "Not a whole lot. I think 
  Old Man Fischer made his money off a patent on some biotech thing in 
  the 70's. Since then, they've pushed alot of money into cancer and 
  AIDS research." 

Jason smiles. Guess I'm just being paranoid. "Thank you, Julie, you've 
  been most helpful." He stands, plops his pen back in his bag, and 
  offers his hand again. "I wish you good fortune on your project!" 

Bisco nods, and takes his hand. "So, um. When's this going to appear?" 

Jason thinks a bit, and replies, "I got word that Tyler's out of town... 
  I need to get reaction from him, and the Observer only comes out once 
  a week during the summer. Probably next week's issue, depending on 
  whether the editor gets off his duff this week or not." He grins. 

Bisco nods, and rubs her nose. She seems to want to say something more, 
  but is hesitating. 

Jason looks at Julie inquisitively. "Oh, is there anything else you 
  wanted to say? Personal commentary on the study, perhaps?" 

Bisco chews the inside of her cheek, then goes to the door and opens it. 
  She looks out quickly, glancing up and down the hall. She comes back, 
  and says quietly, "Look, if you want to interview Tyler, I can't stop 
  you. But, um, he's not really objective about it." 

Jason seems to stop in place and consider this statement a moment. His 
  head gives a slight tilt a minute, and he says, "Not objective... in 
  what sense?" 

Bisco crosses her arms over her chest, defensive. "Well. There's always 
  competition between groups, you know? But the Stanford group's 
  research showed magnetic field increased the frequency of mutations." 
Bisco says "Taylor wants to discredit them. It goes beyond simple 
  rivalry. He's positively rabid about it." 

Jason's eyebrow goes up at that. He gives a small nod to Julie, and 
  says, "I'll keep that in mind. And be sure NOT to quote you on it... 
  that's the type of statement that gets people demoted to jellybean 
  counting. But I didn't hear that from you." Jason smiles, in an 
  attempt to be reassuring. 

Bisco laughs. "I'm a *grad* student. You can't demoted from here. Trust 
  me." 

Jason laughs as well. "I'm also a *grad* student... well, as soon as 
  Summer Session starts... and I've heard professors in the Journalism 
  department threaten to ship students out to Janitorial 101!" He grins. 

Bisco snorts. "You know, I calculated once what my stipend works out to, 
  on an hourly basis. Fifty cents. That's pretty damn humbling, you 
  know? Fifty cents an hour." 

Jason hmms, in a humorous tone. "I tried to figure out how much I was 
  going into debt by the hour once. Humbling isn't the word for THAT! 
  Maybe you should try what they tried down in Georgia... a TA's union. 
  You could argue the correlation between your job and that, I'm sure." 
Jason thinks . o O (Of course, that idea got squashed, but why 
  discourage her?) 

Bisco nods, and shrugs. "Maybe." She looks unconvinced. "But anyway, I 
  would still appreciate it if you kept my name away from that last bit. 
  I find it inconceivable that he could make my life harder, but that's 
  why he's got the PhD and I don't." 

Jason looks at Julie curiously. "I will do that, certainly. But Tyler, 
  from what I was told, doesn't have a PhD. He's a grad student like 
  yourself, from what I heard." Jason thinks to himself, 'Wouldn't be 
  the first time I was misinformed.' 

Bisco shrugs, "Maybe you should check that with him. I thought he was 
  too arrogant to be a student, but maybe he was just bullshitting me." 

Jason smiles, despite himself, at the wording of that last statement. 
  Sounds like something my brother would say. "Well, Julie, I thank you 
  for your time. This line is kind of an interest of mine... mutations, 
  that is what my master's report is tenatively scheduled to be on... , 
  and you were very clear in explaining the project to me." He nods at 
  Julie appreciatively. Fifty cents well earned. 

Bisco chuckles, "Yeah, no problem. Feel free to come back if you've got 
  any other questions. Do you, um. Have a card or something, in case I 
  need to contact you?" 

Jason scribbles on the back page of his notebook and tears it off, 
  handing it to Julie. "This is the number of the Observer office, if 
  there is a problem with the article call there. And this is my number. 
  Hey, if you find anything new and interesting, let me know for sure!" 

Bisco smiles, "You'll be the first to know." 

Jason puts his notebook and pen back into his bag, waves good-bye to 
  Julie, and exits the room, closing the door carefully behind him.