From Chief to Ball

But this is not enough. From the moment he set foot in the New Zealand jungle, Chen Jian and Lin Xi have been inseparable, using various methods to remind or pretend to be puzzled to instill various views of the theory of evolution.

This is the penultimate stop of returning home, and the next stop is Chen Jian's best gift to Lin Xi - a survey trip to the Galapagos Islands.

From New Zealand to the Galapagos, the two places where evidence is easiest to find will be the biggest highlights of this round-the-world voyage.

Since hunting the first moa, Chen Jian took Lin Xi and the expedition team to many primitive jungles. Every time he hunted, he tried his best to discuss the differences between these moa with Lin Xi, gradually arousing each other's feelings. Thinking.

These huge birds need a lot of food, so they each have their own territory, which also causes many obvious differences in the length of moa in different places.

After hunting down a pair of moas again, Chen Jian and a few people dragged the 500-pound big bird aside, and discussed with Lin Xi the difference between the pair of moas in the jungle and the depression outside.

"Look, the neck here is obviously longer than the neck in the depression outside, which can be clearly seen."

Lin Xi took out a measuring stick and nodded, "Yes, it will grow a lot. It should be because you need to raise your neck in the woods to observe the movement in the distance, so as to find food. And look at its beak, which is also in the depression outside. The ones in the forest are completely different, and are more suitable for eating nuts in the woods. In fact, I guess the sand in these bird crops in the woods should be more than the outside, and the ones in the depressions outside mainly produce bugs and grass seeds, as well as those short shrubs berry."

Several people took out their knives, skillfully cut open the crop of the moa, and took out all the food inside. The ninja had a strange stench, found a small stream and washed it with water, and scoured out the sand inside.

Sure enough, the weighing was more than two catties more sand than the moa crops in the depressions outside. After Lin Xi recorded it in his notebook, he observed the moa and simply found a pit in a broken stone to make it. A simple nest, carefully drawn with a graphite pen.

"These birds have different shapes, necks, and beaks because of the difference between the woods or the depressions. It is easy to understand, in order to survive. But what I can't understand is where these birds come from? In the Black Swan River or It’s the continent to the north that doesn’t have such weird birds, and this is just an island the size of a county, could it be that these birds have been here since the beginning of the world?”

Chen Jian said with a smile: "Do you still believe that these birds existed at the beginning of the world? They just evolved to adapt to various changes in the future?"

"No. I don't believe in the creation of the world only a few thousand years ago. Do you remember what I told you a long time ago about the bones of ancient animals dug up in the coal mines?"

"remember."

"Why do I feel that the appearance of this moa is very similar to those bones dug out?"

Chen Jian squinted at the other moa that hadn't been cut open, and said with a smile, "I forgot if you didn't tell me, it's really similar. But the thing that was dug out is obviously not a bird."

"Yes, I can tell the difference, and I've seen it too. I don't know how many years have passed since the bones dug out of the mining area. Did those things become extinct? Or did those things become birds? If that's the case, what happened? How many years has this world changed? Compared with these long times, the recorded history in the rest of the world is only 5000 years."

"probably."

"Well, 5000 years ago, we should be the same as the cannibal tribes on this island, those tribes in Africa, or those tribes in Wangbei City. This is recorded in the history books. In 5000 years, there have been changes. It's so big... I really don't dare to think about it anymore."

"what happened?"

"Orangutan! If in three to five thousand years people can change from what they are like in the tribe to what we are now, if the animals with huge bones in those mine pits become things like moa in countless years, maybe it will be earlier A few hundred thousand years ago our closest relative was the orangutan. That would require an experiment ... and it's obviously not a good one."

Chen Jian shivered and asked, "Humans mate with monkeys, orangutans, or apes?"

Lin Xi smiled and said, "I won't do it, but I believe that some people will not be able to bear it. But since a horse and a donkey can give birth to a mule, I would like to see if a lion and a tiger can give birth to offspring." .In fact, what I wondered before was this question: Some people will definitely not be able to resist doing this kind of thing, so where is the bottom line of this kind of scientific experiment? Other subjects are easy to talk about, whether it is physics, chemistry, or even agriculture. cabbages and even horses and donkeys...but what to do when some problems involve people?"

"It's an ethical question."

"More than that. You remember when the smallpox incident happened in the capital, I trusted you very much at that time..."

As he spoke, he rolled up his arms, revealing the scar of cowpox cut with a knife on his arm, and said: "But even if I trust you, I still experimented with myself first. After the symptoms of cowpox disappeared, I and a The patient who had smallpox had been in contact with the patient for a long time, and after making sure that he was fine, he did such a thing in the capital. This is an unsolvable question-is it reasonable to do an immoral thing for the happiness of more people? "

Lin Xi blinked, with two dimples on his face, and said calmly but sadly: "This is why I wonder...whether we are ready. I have seen too many changes in the past ten years, but Just like you often say that material changes come first, and consciousness changes come later, our consciousness and morality will soon lag behind the times, especially in our discipline and the discipline of medicine that is closer to us. "

"It's like we're human, at least we seem to be, and we're still doing what beasts would do."

Chen Jian seemed to understand something, and frowned, "I'm afraid it will be difficult. It may take hundreds of years for things like not to massacre civilians to become something that everyone accepts."

"Yes, but haven't you already started preparing? If you don't prepare, it will never be possible. If you prepare, at least it is possible. After you go back, use your reputation in the academy and ours to launch a scientific bottom line campaign." Let's discuss it. At least...determine what a human is. It's one thing if you don't obey, but it will always make more people think."

Chen Jian wondered, "Why do you suddenly think so?"

Lin Xi sighed, and said helplessly: "I didn't think so suddenly, but when I saw those cannibals eating people, I suddenly had an impulse in my heart, and I wanted to do an experiment... cut off that person's head and ask him A few words to see if he can answer after losing his head. Although it was only for a moment, and then I was suppressed, but I still feel a little scared..."

Chapter 7 Evolution

It can be seen that Lin Xi is a little afraid that his soul will be swallowed by wild beasts.

The behavior of shivering has long been far away from people like her, but Chen Jian can still hear the chill in her heart.

"Xunzi once said that Mozi is hidden in the use but does not know righteousness, and Zhuangzi is hidden in the sky but does not know people. Now it seems that we have to face this situation. If you are covered in the sky but do not know people, you will not be able to distinguish between animals and people; If you don't know righteousness when you use it, you will lose morality and ethics."

"Since we believe that the movement of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the derivation of all things are the way of heaven and earth, then heaven, earth, and even gods have no personality. Morality is not endowed by personality from heaven and earth, but from acquired cultivation and social influence."

"You just saw too much cruelty and darkness along the way, especially after arriving on the island and seeing the behavior of those cannibals by chance. It's not that wild beasts are devouring your soul, it's just that you are near a group of wild beasts. Don't be afraid , it will be fine when you get back."

Lin Xi hummed, turned around and looked at the moa that had been dissected open, and said with a wry smile: "When I was young, I caught butterflies as specimens, and occasionally I caught small snakes or other things, but they were all small. About like this Birds are too big, they are not hunted for food, it is different from trampling an ant to death. The bigger the bird, the more pitiful it is, and the more people think too much.”

"Okay, don't think about it. If you feel depressed, then let's go back to the human society as soon as possible."

"Ah."

The news about going to the Galapagos Islands cannot be announced at this time. We can only find an opportunity to go there after leaving. It is not too far from the land, and it happens to be on the way back home.

After finishing the investigation in New Zealand and accumulating a sufficient number of notes and samples, the fleet set sail again.

From the Black Swan River to here, they have seen enough novel worlds, and they are also full of freshness about the journey below.

But Chen Jian understands that after setting sail from here, there will no longer be any novel places. Across the vast South Pacific Ocean, the Spaniards have already established forts and strongholds 70 years ago, and there will be no places that no one has set foot in. , land available for habitation or immigration.

During the difficult voyage with violent winds, Chen Jian still insisted on telling stories and reading books to the people on board when there was no storm, so as to relieve the long and boring journey, and also to let them know more about the culture he wanted them to know.

It's just that other people's lives are full of fun, but Chen Jian is boring. He can only read the books he has read countless times over and over again.

After a month and a half of difficult sailing, everyone finally saw the coastline of the mainland again, but soon after landing, their interest faded. Some aborigines here can speak Spanish and can communicate.

I thought it was another piece of land that I discovered first, but my mood was instantly spoiled by the Spanish words that came out of the mouths of these aborigines.

Even if there is no nautical clock, everyone still understands that the next destination is their hometown. All these dreamlike trips to the southern hemisphere are over, and it is inevitable to devote themselves to society.

On the way north along the coastline, the fleet stopped several times. Chen Jian stayed in the Atacama Desert for a while, trying to find a good natural port where there was no one at the moment.

As the driest desert in the world, the good natural environment here has endowed it with the best grade sodium nitrate ore and iodine-containing ore. These things are extremely water-absorbent, and non-arid areas can easily seep into the surface.

With the popularization of simple photography such as silver salt photosensitive plus egg white photosensitive paper, the use of iodine will increase, and the sales will also increase. The iodine from the saltpeter mine here is a huge mineral that can improve photographic technology. .

And the large amount of saltpeter mine here is also what Chen Jianzhi must acquire. This is the most valuable nitrogen fertilizer before the ammonia synthesis technology.

With the establishment of the sulfuric acid industry, chemical wet phosphate fertilizer is no longer a problem. Even if the technology is immature, the use of phosphate fertilizer can be guaranteed to be promoted with struvite.

Potassium fertilizer already has a large number of mines, the Republic has a large number of potassium chloride mines, and Thailand also has carnallite mines worth mining.

Among the three kinds of fertilizers that crops need, nitrogen fertilizer is the only one left.

The reason for the ambition is not only that these nitrogen fertilizers can make money and increase food production, but more importantly, they can help the country to complete the centralization of land.

Commercial farm capitalists can afford this kind of fertilizer, but it is difficult for small self-cultivated farmers to use it. It is not only a matter of cost, but also the popularity is not easy to spread to small self-cultivated farmers.

The use of various columbine carts, seed drills, and horse-drawn threshers had tended to concentrate the land, but these alone were not enough.