Actually winked . Ivy snorted with laughter and hid behind her coffee cup. Deep breath.
“So anyway,” she frantically searched for a subject change. “What brings Orrin James to Melbourne Uni really? Not enough academic notoriety where you were?” This time it was Orrin that looked discomfited.
“Too much actually.” He leant forward conspiratorially. “You know what I'm working on - how important it could be.” Ivy nodded. “I just – I couldn't afford to have the academic board breathing down my neck as their ‘up-and-coming promotional resource’. Their words obviously, not mine. I’m not a damn resource . I had to get out. To be honest I needed much better equipment and a wider berth anyway. No one's watching me here. At least not as closely.”
They chatted intently for the next hour, oblivious to the people slowly drifting away from the refectory, heading back to lectures and work. Ivy explained the finer points of her current research to Orrin, and was surprised to find he followed with rapt interest. Usually, she received vague, glassy smiles.
Orrin leaned closer. “So what of this ‘usewear analysis’ then? I mean, if you find blood on these stone tools you’re working on, what can you actually do with it?”
Ivy sat forward too, unable to curb her passion. “You mean, what can't we do with it! The tiniest amount of residual blood blows our window into prehistory wide open. It's like… having a camera in the kitchen of a cave man - or on the end of a spear. What animals did they butcher? How did they cook their food? Hunt? Make clothing? I can literally recreate the daily lives of humans that have been extinct for thousands of years. I use everything I can find - blood cells, plant fibres, feathers, hell, I can even tell you what poisons they used to tip their arrows.” Ivy's face was like a beacon of light, her green eyes sparkling. “Didn't you ever see Jurassic Park?”
“For sure. But I thought that Jurassic Park stuff was a hypothetical? So you can really get dino DNA, then?”
“Well, not quite,” Ivy admitted. “Sixty-five million years is still a little beyond our reach for DNA repair. For now . You see, ancient DNA degrades the longer it spends in the environment. It fragments; breaks down into shorter sections like a microscopic jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces and jumbled parts. But we have managed to get DNA fragments of other prehistoric animals. Woolly mammoths, cave bears, reindeer, musk ox…. We've also got genetic material from nineteen plants in Siberian ice cores over four hundred thousand years old!” Ivy leant forward, not even aware she had grabbed his hand on the table.
“That right?” Orrin was beaming.
“Yes! Just imagine - the earth was so different back then! Humans were still evolving, Homo erectus were walking the earth, and who knows who else! It's incredible stuff. Did you know that we've already mapped the genetic code for Neanderthals? My hope is that one day; we can use DNA to set our phylogenetic family tree in stone.”
Ivy leaned back in her chair, her cheeks suddenly pink as she dragged her hand back with her. Oh my god, did I do that? She laughed nervously.
Slowly and deliberately, Orrin leaned forward, taking her hand again in both of his. They felt strong and warm.
“And?” he prompted. “What about your Flores blood, any chance of resurrecting the little lads?” He let her hand go gently and sat back, shuffling his empty coffee cup instead.
Ivy felt suddenly lost. “Um. Flores? No - no such luck. Yet . The bones are pretty recent, maybe 60,000 years old, but they’ve been under some pretty rough chemical and environmental decomposition. They were like mashed potatoes during excavation apparently - it was a difficult process. The DNA breaks down under those conditions. But the stone tool residues were younger, so - maybe? That's what I'm here for.”
When Orrin's questions finally drew closer to her personal life, Ivy stumbled
“So anyway,” she frantically searched for a subject change. “What brings Orrin James to Melbourne Uni really? Not enough academic notoriety where you were?” This time it was Orrin that looked discomfited.
“Too much actually.” He leant forward conspiratorially. “You know what I'm working on - how important it could be.” Ivy nodded. “I just – I couldn't afford to have the academic board breathing down my neck as their ‘up-and-coming promotional resource’. Their words obviously, not mine. I’m not a damn resource . I had to get out. To be honest I needed much better equipment and a wider berth anyway. No one's watching me here. At least not as closely.”
They chatted intently for the next hour, oblivious to the people slowly drifting away from the refectory, heading back to lectures and work. Ivy explained the finer points of her current research to Orrin, and was surprised to find he followed with rapt interest. Usually, she received vague, glassy smiles.
Orrin leaned closer. “So what of this ‘usewear analysis’ then? I mean, if you find blood on these stone tools you’re working on, what can you actually do with it?”
Ivy sat forward too, unable to curb her passion. “You mean, what can't we do with it! The tiniest amount of residual blood blows our window into prehistory wide open. It's like… having a camera in the kitchen of a cave man - or on the end of a spear. What animals did they butcher? How did they cook their food? Hunt? Make clothing? I can literally recreate the daily lives of humans that have been extinct for thousands of years. I use everything I can find - blood cells, plant fibres, feathers, hell, I can even tell you what poisons they used to tip their arrows.” Ivy's face was like a beacon of light, her green eyes sparkling. “Didn't you ever see Jurassic Park?”
“For sure. But I thought that Jurassic Park stuff was a hypothetical? So you can really get dino DNA, then?”
“Well, not quite,” Ivy admitted. “Sixty-five million years is still a little beyond our reach for DNA repair. For now . You see, ancient DNA degrades the longer it spends in the environment. It fragments; breaks down into shorter sections like a microscopic jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces and jumbled parts. But we have managed to get DNA fragments of other prehistoric animals. Woolly mammoths, cave bears, reindeer, musk ox…. We've also got genetic material from nineteen plants in Siberian ice cores over four hundred thousand years old!” Ivy leant forward, not even aware she had grabbed his hand on the table.
“That right?” Orrin was beaming.
“Yes! Just imagine - the earth was so different back then! Humans were still evolving, Homo erectus were walking the earth, and who knows who else! It's incredible stuff. Did you know that we've already mapped the genetic code for Neanderthals? My hope is that one day; we can use DNA to set our phylogenetic family tree in stone.”
Ivy leaned back in her chair, her cheeks suddenly pink as she dragged her hand back with her. Oh my god, did I do that? She laughed nervously.
Slowly and deliberately, Orrin leaned forward, taking her hand again in both of his. They felt strong and warm.
“And?” he prompted. “What about your Flores blood, any chance of resurrecting the little lads?” He let her hand go gently and sat back, shuffling his empty coffee cup instead.
Ivy felt suddenly lost. “Um. Flores? No - no such luck. Yet . The bones are pretty recent, maybe 60,000 years old, but they’ve been under some pretty rough chemical and environmental decomposition. They were like mashed potatoes during excavation apparently - it was a difficult process. The DNA breaks down under those conditions. But the stone tool residues were younger, so - maybe? That's what I'm here for.”
When Orrin's questions finally drew closer to her personal life, Ivy stumbled
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