Chapter 857: Dormant State
Combining the latest discovered information, Xu You continued to simulate the situation.
Unconsciously, the world with infinite space appeared in Xu You's mind again.
After continuous development, simple single-celled organisms were born on the planet, and the number of the first single-celled organism with the ability to divide continued to grow, occupying a large area of nearby land.
However, due to drastic changes in the environment, these creatures eventually became completely extinct and disappeared from the planet.
"There was nothing wrong with the whole process... um... that's not right!"
At this
In countless simulated evolutions, although each species that appears looks very similar, in fact, there are more or less some differences between them.
For example, some species have particularly fast cell division rates, some species have stronger resistance to high temperatures , some species have larger cells, and so on.
The diversity of these species is so great that even after the simulation has been run tens of thousands of times, each new species that appears is different from all the species that have come before.
"If enough species are born, is there a possibility that a species will be born that can adapt to extremely harsh environments? In other words, is there any way for this species to temporarily exist in another form to avoid the impact of the harsh environment?"
This is a bit like the Trisolarans in the novel, who were able to choose to dehydrate in the harsh environment of the Chaotic Era, and then soak in water again to restore their vitality in the Stable Era.
Of course, this special dehydration ability is very difficult to exist in the real environment, but some organisms may still acquire similar abilities in other ways.
Thinking of this, Xu You decided to intervene in the world simulated in his brain.
Through his own consciousness, Xu You allowed these creatures to evolve at a faster rate so that they could adapt to the harsh environment on the planet.
Although this kind of intervention is unlikely to occur in the real world, it can be used to determine in which directions organisms are likely to evolve in order to adapt to changes in the surrounding environment.
After many simulations, Xu You discovered that after his intervention, these creatures became very different from before.
Some organisms have become able to withstand extreme temperature differences, and neither high nor low temperatures can kill them directly.
Some organisms speed up their reproduction and expand the area they occupy to ensure that their populations have enough habitats and choose a more suitable environment to survive.
Some species have accelerated their migration ability and will not stay in one place forever. If the environment is not suitable for survival, they will move to a more comfortable environment.
But among the many species, Xu You still found one that interested him the most.
When the surrounding environment changes, this species can put itself into a state that is almost "dormant". During this period, it will not move, will not absorb nutrients from the outside world, and does not even need oxygen. Instead, it will remain in a state close to death.
This state can last for a very long time, even decades or hundreds of years later, they can still maintain this state.
Only when the surrounding environment becomes suitable again will they regain vitality, revive little by little, and continue their previous life activities.
Of course, this "dormant" state is not foolproof. Individuals of many species completely lose their vitality in a dormant state for various reasons, and slowly evolve into some organic matter, which is no longer their previous life form.
However, because they are in this state, their ability to resist harsh environments has been greatly enhanced. There will always be some organisms that can survive for a long time and "revive" when the environment is suitable, continuing the growth and reproduction process of life.
After coming out of the brain simulation state, Xu You's thoughts changed again.
"If a similar creature really appeared on Mars during its long evolutionary process... then we might really find some new traces underneath."
Thinking of this, Xu You even had an urge to continue digging deeper.
However, Xu You also knew that even if his hypothesis was really possible, these species could not exist several meters underground, but would be at a deeper level.
With the current capabilities of the project team, it is impossible to complete deeper excavation work.
Xu You finally resisted the urge and calmed himself down.
"Old Xu, what on earth were you thinking about just now?"
Seeing that Xu You's mood was gradually recovering, Hu Shucheng couldn't help but lean over and ask Xu You.
"Old Hu, I suddenly thought of a possibility. There may be a species on Mars that can use a state similar to 'hibernation' to resist the harsh external environment, and then revive and regain vitality under suitable conditions. However, if this possibility exists, they should also exist deep underground..."
Xu You roughly told Hu Shucheng about his ideas, and Hu Shucheng's expression kept changing as he listened.
"Old Xu, you have a really wild imagination, but this possibility cannot be ruled out. It's just that it's not that easy for us to dig dozens or hundreds of meters underground on Mars."
This time, the goal of Bluestar's manned landing on Mars is only to explore part of the surface of Mars, and has not yet involved too deep exploration work.
And it is not an easy task to transport such large-scale excavation equipment to Mars.
This is not to say that Blue Planet's aerospace industry does not have such capabilities at present, but the cost of such operations is too high. If it is not a very important mission, it is not worth paying such a high cost.
Since he couldn't think of a good method, Xu You didn't tell anyone else about his ideas, but continued to think about them.
At this time, other astronauts came over.
They had already completed their respective tasks and were just waiting for Xu You to finish his so-called thinking and continue on to the next stop.
"Academician Xu, do you have any latest discoveries ?"
"Well, I do have some ideas, but they are unconfirmed and cannot be confirmed for the time being. Let's go to the next stop."
After thinking about it, Xu You decided not to explain the matter to others first. He decided to wait until he could think of a better way.
