2022.
USTC campus.
West District AED.
Outside the building, the word "Library" inscribed by Mr. Qi Gong shines radiantly in the sunlight, exuding the resilience and vitality ingrained in each Ke Da Person.
Meanwhile, inside the library.
A young man sits alone in a quiet corner, writing furiously:
"As everyone knows."
"The 21st century is the century of biology."
"Around the year 2000, this slogan quietly became popular. Computers were actually a big deal before then, but everyone knows that the Nasdaq crashed, the internet bubble burst, and biology took on an important historical mission."
"Among a group of high school students, this manifested in biology becoming the major with the highest admission scores in schools, if not the first, then the second."
"Even on the transfer list in the second year, biology topped the popularity charts."
"At that time, students in our major jokingly said that we gave up the chance to get into Qingbei to embrace the future of the 21st century."
"Who would have thought that ten years later, 'the 21st century is the century of biology' has become a shared joke among us biology professionals—not laughing at the saying itself, but at us biology students."
"To put it in today's words, 'this is a sad story'."
The young man paused, seemingly sensing something, picked up his phone, and turned on the screen.
As it turned out, no messages came through.
The young man twitched his mouth and continued writing with his head lowered:
"In my opinion, the phrase 'the 21st century is the century of biology' is increasingly becoming a reality.
The development trend in the biology industry has actually been gradually clarified. With the advancement of technology, many biological fields may make breakthroughs in the near future."
"Outstanding talents in the industry can naturally achieve fame and financial rewards—there are great examples around. A senior who graduated from Teng School's top ten university with a Ph.D. is now a CTO at a domestic gene sequencing startup with a million-yuan annual salary. If the company gets listed, his net worth could soar to hundreds of millions."
"In the past ten years, the integration of computer, physics, and automation technologies into biological sciences has progressed by leaps and bounds.
To say nothing of anything else, just look at the diagnostic equipment in hospitals and compare it to ten years ago; how much progress has been made?"
"Ten years ago, biological sequencing was an extremely expensive project capable of producing major papers.
Now?
Any decent hospital can perform it."
"Or take gene localization, for example; it used to be a large and time-consuming project, but now the cost is low enough that even beginner authors can afford it."
"Ten years ago, there was a saying in the biological world:
Biologists conduct experiments and analyze data, while computer scientists and mathematicians interpret and explain the data.
But now?
A biology Ph.D. who only knows how to experiment and doesn't know a few programming languages or R would be embarrassed to even greet others."
"Thirty years have passed, and the layman's understanding of life sciences is still stuck in flowers, planting, fertilization, poultry, traditional medicine diagnostics, surgery, injections, running PCR... still stuck in the notion that jobs are hard to find and no one wants to hire us...
"Little do they know, life sciences have long since moved beyond that."
"For example, the big data boom that started around 2012 was propelled by the leap in sequencing technology in the life sciences starting in 2008.
Moreover, AI, machine learning, genetic algorithms—aren't all of these driven by life sciences?
I started learning about big data analysis from Ke Da's youth class and got into AI and machine learning in 2011, all of which were part of my life sciences courses.
When did these concepts become popular?—At least three years later!"
At this point in the writing.
The young man's emotions gradually heightened, and the imprint of his writing became more profound:
"Currently, the biggest issue in the entire biology field is the fierce competition."
"It's like a lottery draw; you don't need intelligence to join, anyone can, as long as they have money and labor, so everyone gets into the game."
"The numbers that everyone knows might win are so few, leading to multiple research groups often trying to grab the same number."
"Whoever gets it first gains the upper hand, then the race begins, students work till 11 PM and don't take weekends off;
Students send results to their supervisors, who wake up in the middle of the night to review and submit."
"They would rather send their hard-earned numbers to a trashy journal just to beat their competitors by a step."
"As a result, professors from prestigious schools and researchers with many accomplishments are embroiled in intense fights over the order of lottery drawings, losing all dignity."
As he kept writing, the young man suddenly refocused:
This is the material for his Ph.D. defense, and clearly the latter part could not be presented in such a venue.
So he shook his head and drew a long line through this part of the manuscript.
At that moment, the sound of a chair knocking came from a desk not far from the young man.
The young man's train of thought was broken, and he instinctively looked up.
He realized it was the sound of a pair of young students...ahem, a couple leaving their seats after finishing their study session.
The young man suddenly thought of his paper wife, wondering if he should visit Tifa or Alice tonight?
Then he snapped back to reality, gently shook his head, and continued writing:
"Of course, as of now, biology is still some distance away from a standard explosion."
"What conditions are needed for a field to explode like computer science?"
"I believe there are three prerequisites:
1. Low-cost development.
2. High tolerance for error allowing developers to quickly establish and iterate projects.
3. A 2C business model."
"Unfortunately, the current biology-related industries do not meet these conditions.
"For example, genetically modified crops require extremely high research and development costs—similar to Monsanto's giant screening machines, with the margin for error so low that a single pollen drift could be enough to cause problems."
"Similarly, the cost of new drug development is high and the tolerance for error is also outrageously low, with the FDA enforcing strict requirements due to various internal and external reasons."
"This has resulted in biology startups having a high dependency on resources and slow progress, making it difficult to achieve an explosion."
After writing this, the young man took a deep breath and concluded:
"But I believe these challenges will be conquered one day!"
"I am sure of it; the 21st century will still be the century of biology!"
"This is the pursuit of countless pioneers in the field of biological sciences and also my lifelong dream!"
"Defendant: Xu Yun."
Finishing up, the young man leisurely stretched.
He carefully capped his pen and gathered the documents.
After one last check of the surroundings.
He confirmed that nothing was left behind and walked out of the West District Library with his belongings.
Returning to his rented small house outside the school, the young man took off his glasses and lay on the bed in the shape of a "T".
He stared aimlessly at the ceiling.
After a while, he shook his head helplessly and a bitter smile appeared on his lips:
"Damn, if not for the cheats, who the hell would study biology?"
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