LIGHTNOVELWORLD chapter 70
Episode 70. An Elephant Must Be In the Refrigerator
Episode 70. An Elephant Must Be In the Refrigerator
The conference preparations were going smoothly.
Successfully grew the blue mold, too.
Dozens of glass jars filled with bread were ready.
A strain of blue mold with sterilizing power. I’d give that to the researchers who wanted to work on penicillin.
Successfully made liquid culture, the first step toward commercial use. Up to this point, it wasn’t difficult, but precipitating the penicillin molecules as a barium salt in a weak acid solution—
Istina’s voice broke my train of thought.
“Professor! Is this supposed to catch fire?”
“The alcohol lamp broke. Put it out.”
“Yes, sir.”
– She really spectacularly failed that simple instruction. Well, I’m not a chemist, either. It was never going to work.
Commercial production would take massive resources, and maybe someone else could figure it out. As I remembered, the chemical purification of penicillin was unbelievably complex.
The process I remembered went something like this:
Immerse the blue mold culture liquid in a weak acid solution, with acetic acid added midway. Centrifuge, and go through various other steps before finally ending up with a barium salt solution.
Where do you even buy barium…?
“Istina, go out and get some barium.”
“Barium? What’s barium?”
“Just go buy some.”
“I need to know what it is to buy it, Professor.”
Istina couldn’t find barium either, apparently.
This is a mess. If a grad student says it’s impossible, it’s basically impossible, so how are we going to fix this?
The answer was simple.
If we lack the technical skill, we can borrow the power of magic. And if that doesn’t work, then it’s just not meant to be. We moved our feet.
This is the Alchemy Department research building at the academy.
I’d borrowed a distiller from the Alchemy Department before. More accurate to say I stole it, since I never returned it.
Anyway. A place I’d never normally go, but today we had no choice.
Me and Istina, wearing plague doctor masks, entered the Alchemy Department research building.
“But, professor. Do we really need to wear these just to go to the building next door?”
Yes, we do.
“There aren’t any white-haired chemists.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Chemists have short lives.”
“Ah.”
A joke that used to float around among students who studied chemical engineering, or related fields, in my past life. It’s terrifying, but it’s true.
Analysis of Newton’s hair, who also worked as an alchemist, reportedly found four times the normal level of lead and fifteen times the normal level of mercury.
That’s why he had dementia in his later years.
Though, even when he was in his right mind, he lost money investing in South Sea Company stock and did all sorts of crazy things, like sticking needles in his own eyeballs. Maybe he wasn’t ever really in his right mind…?
Anyway. The bottom line is, anyone who wants to live long should stay far away from chemists. And when meeting a chemist, always wear a mask.
“Who knows what kind of poison they’re brewing. Wear your mask.”
Istina put her mask on without a word.
“So. Who was this alchemy professor we’re going to see this time? Professor Wolfram, was it?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know him?”
Istina shook her head.
“No, but he’s another alchemy professor known for being kind. I looked for a professor who would most likely agree to the request.”
“Good job.”
“Thank you.”
He must be similar to Professor Klaus.
He kept saying he couldn’t get the barium, but in the end, he found a solution like he was told. As expected, there’s nothing a graduate student can’t do; it’s all just an act.
We arrived at Professor Wolfram’s lab pretty quickly. It looked like smoke was rising from it, or something. Glad I’m wearing a mask.
Knock knock knock.
The door wasn’t locked.
I walked into Professor Wolfram’s lab. And there was nothing inside. Just a big cauldron sitting there.
It was empty, thankfully, but I didn’t know if there was lead or mercury or arsenic clinging to it. I moved as far away from the cauldron as I could.
“Professor Wolfram!”
No answer. Is no one here?
I sat down on the sofa on one side of the lab.
“They say the imperial family will be funding the research!”
“We’ve come to deliver good news?”
What should I say to get a reaction?
“30 gold for a graduate student’s salary!”
*Rustle.*
At that last word, the door at the back of the lab, which had been closed, swung open. A student with a disheveled look poked their head out from the back.
“Uh, are you really going to double the salary? What do I have to do?”
“Just kidding.”
“Ehh…”
Judging by the context, this person was probably Professor Wolfram’s graduate student. Anyway…
30 gold was double? I’d only asked for half of what Istina was getting. 15 gold wouldn’t even cover the cost of feeding the mold in our lab.
The Alchemy Department graduate student frowned.
“But who are you? And why the mask?”
*I’m wearing this because I have no idea what kind of toxins you guys are brewing in here*, I didn’t say. I just shrugged.
“Professor Asterix from the Healing Department. I came because I need to ask the Alchemy Department for help.”
“Ah. I’m Luciana. Just a sec.”
Luciana rubbed her eyes and re-tied her hair. She looked like she’d been woken up in a hurry.
“What’s the problem?”
“One thing. Where’s Professor Wolfram?”
“He went to his family home. It’ll take a few days… If you have something to ask, you can ask me.”
Luciana’s eyes, which had been drowsy, suddenly snapped open as if she’d remembered something.
“Oh, if you’re Professor Asterix… Are you the one who recently discovered the centrifuge?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, it’s *that* professor…! The alchemy department was going crazy about that thing. They said you can use it to separate mixed solutions.”
Yeah, well. I mainly used it to separate blood, but centrifugal separation is a technology with many other applications.
“Good to hear you’ve heard of it.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
Luciana perched on the professor’s desk in the center of the lab. I placed a sample bottle containing fungal liquid on the desk.
“What I wanted to ask about was this.”
“What is it?”
“Medicinal mushroom solution.”
It’s a fungus, so let’s just call it mushroom.
This is a blue mold culture solution that’s been centrifuged once. Now I have to figure out how to separate penicillin from this.
I didn’t really have a plan either. Just something along the lines of, “Maybe if I do some magic it’ll work?”
Maybe a solution will appear if I keep the centrifuge running. Or, wait, is it water-soluble? If so, will centrifugal separation even work properly?
“I need to extract something called penicillin, a specific substance with bacteria-killing properties.”
“I see.”
“Is it possible?”
“Just by looking at it, it seems difficult. We don’t know anything about this substance yet, do we?”
“But you’ll still try, right? This is a pretty big research project, so the Imperial Court is giving funding and if you participate, they’ll list you as a co-author on the paper.”
“Funding?”
“Yeah.”
“How much?”
I don’t know either.
Mint, or violet, maybe I could get a pretty hefty sum if I asked the prince. I honestly haven’t ever worried about that kind of thing.
“Luciana, was it? Professor Luciana. If you succeed, I’ll even cover your tuition next year.”
Luciana closed her eyes and pondered.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright then. I’ll give it a try, so leave the culture medium here. And if you know anything about the target substance, please write down as much as you can.”
Seems like the negotiation was a success…. I nodded, and Luciana glared at the vial of medium as if she wanted to kill it.
Still, I like seeing that fire in her.
“What were you going to do, professor?”
“First, centrifuge it. Once the solution separates into layers, check each layer for the target substance, and for differences in concentration.”
Luciana scratched her head.
“Oh. That’d definitely get us somewhere.”
“That’s as far as I got.”
“Let’s try it then. We’ve got crystallization magic and water-removal magic too. Or we could just remove all the impurities and fungal matter from the pure liquid, and condense what’s left?”
“Alchemy’s your specialty.”
“I’ll do my best to get it done as soon as possible.”
That’s right. If we’re not injecting it, we can just remove the problematic bulk impurities and make it into pill form. We might even find more solutions?
Looks like a solution has popped into her head. Luciana was looking at the problematic solution, her lips smacking.
The answer will definitely come.
The elephant will fit in the fridge.
We left the alchemy department’s research building. I took off the stuffy mask. Istina, next to me, looked a little grumpy.
“Professor.”
“What?”
“Pay my tuition too.”
Ah, damn it. I shouldn’t have brought Istina. I forgot she’s also a graduate student. Anyway. She seems upset.
“Istina, if the Imperial family sends a lot of research funds this time, I’ll pay your tuition. Okay?”
“Understood. I almost felt left out.”
But. Doesn’t she get paid for working in the ward? She must be earning more than ten times what Luciana does. Is it just that Istina is petty?
“But. Do you really think that person can isolate an antibiotic? It seems difficult.”
“I think they can?”
Once we present this at the Whitby Conference, people all over the Empire will research how to make penicillin. Finding the answer is just a matter of time.
It would be better if we found it, but commercializing penicillin is ultimately just a matter of time.