got a monopoly on positive attitudes,” she commented lightly, aiming to return the compliment. “I bet there are plenty of gung-ho researchers back in the Ukraine.”
Lozinak blinked in surprise and Roberta realized she had made a mistake. He leaned back into his chair, putting a little more distance between him and Roberta. His eyes narrowed as he peered at the American woman through his glasses.
“How do you know I am Ukrainian?” he asked her, not in a hostile way but clearly more interested in her answer than maybe he should be. He exchanged a worried glance with Takagi, who looked somewhat baffled and caught off guard by the edgy turn the conversation had taken, as innocuous as it seemed to be.
Roberta kicked herself mentally. “Just a lucky guess,” she improvised. “I dated a Ukrainian guy in college once, when I was a freshman.” Is he buying this? she wondered, sweating beneath her increasingly clingy dress. “Your accent sounds a little like his.”
“Ah,” Lozinak replied. He mulled her explanation over for a heartbeat or so, then appeared to relax to a degree. He slid his chair closer to the table, coming back into the constricted circle of light. “I see.”
An awkward silence followed, mercifully interrupted by the arrival of the appetizers. After they had sampled the antipasti, which weren’t as bad as Roberta had feared, Takagi got to the point. “What if I told you—hypothetically, of course—that human genetic engineering was a lot closer to happening than most people realize, that many of the world’s finest minds were already working on the project?”
“I’d think that was very exciting news,” Roberta said carefully, [68] aiming to act just as curious as Dr. Ronnie Neary would be at this point—and no more. “How much closer are we talking here?”
“Very,” Takagi said emphatically, his eyes gleaming. Roberta guessed that he was just aching to tell someone about this mysterious project, and had probably been biting his tongue since the conference began. “Let’s just say that old-fashioned evolution is in serious danger of becoming passé. Why, even now, at this very minute—”
Lozinak coughed, interrupting Takagi before he could spill too many beans. Clearly more cautious than his somewhat chattier colleague, the incognito geneticist rerouted the conversation. “Perhaps Dr. Neary will be so kind as to tell us more about her own work?”
Uh-oh, Roberta thought. Looks like we’ve entered the job-interview portion of the evening. Thank goodness she’d done her homework!
“Well, lately I’ve been experimenting with new ways to subdivide DNA into sections, using restriction enzymes,” she said, praying that Lozinak wouldn’t quiz her in too much detail; as far as she was concerned it was minor miracle that she’d picked up enough genetic know-how to be able to string coherent sentences together. “I also want to find a better technique for pasting the isolated gene sequences into bacterial plasmids, so I can use the altered bacteria as a vector to deliver foreign genes to a host cell.”
Lozinak nodded thoughtfully. To Roberta’s relief, he didn’t look like he found her imaginary experiments too implausible. “A promising field of study,” he commented. “How are you able to tell whether the recombination has succeeded or not?”
Is this a trick question? Roberta worried. “I can’t—yet.” She recalled reading about some new technique that hadn’t quite been perfected yet, and dredged her memory for the details. “Er, ideally, I’d tag the recombinant plasmid with a radioactive probe, but I still haven’t found the right sequence to use as a carrier.”
“We may be able to offer you some assistance in that area,” Lozinak replied slowly. Judging from his benign expression, and the encouraging tone of his voice, she hadn’t flunked the exam so far. “What is your opinion of the function performed by introns?”
Introns, Roberta remembered
Lozinak blinked in surprise and Roberta realized she had made a mistake. He leaned back into his chair, putting a little more distance between him and Roberta. His eyes narrowed as he peered at the American woman through his glasses.
“How do you know I am Ukrainian?” he asked her, not in a hostile way but clearly more interested in her answer than maybe he should be. He exchanged a worried glance with Takagi, who looked somewhat baffled and caught off guard by the edgy turn the conversation had taken, as innocuous as it seemed to be.
Roberta kicked herself mentally. “Just a lucky guess,” she improvised. “I dated a Ukrainian guy in college once, when I was a freshman.” Is he buying this? she wondered, sweating beneath her increasingly clingy dress. “Your accent sounds a little like his.”
“Ah,” Lozinak replied. He mulled her explanation over for a heartbeat or so, then appeared to relax to a degree. He slid his chair closer to the table, coming back into the constricted circle of light. “I see.”
An awkward silence followed, mercifully interrupted by the arrival of the appetizers. After they had sampled the antipasti, which weren’t as bad as Roberta had feared, Takagi got to the point. “What if I told you—hypothetically, of course—that human genetic engineering was a lot closer to happening than most people realize, that many of the world’s finest minds were already working on the project?”
“I’d think that was very exciting news,” Roberta said carefully, [68] aiming to act just as curious as Dr. Ronnie Neary would be at this point—and no more. “How much closer are we talking here?”
“Very,” Takagi said emphatically, his eyes gleaming. Roberta guessed that he was just aching to tell someone about this mysterious project, and had probably been biting his tongue since the conference began. “Let’s just say that old-fashioned evolution is in serious danger of becoming passé. Why, even now, at this very minute—”
Lozinak coughed, interrupting Takagi before he could spill too many beans. Clearly more cautious than his somewhat chattier colleague, the incognito geneticist rerouted the conversation. “Perhaps Dr. Neary will be so kind as to tell us more about her own work?”
Uh-oh, Roberta thought. Looks like we’ve entered the job-interview portion of the evening. Thank goodness she’d done her homework!
“Well, lately I’ve been experimenting with new ways to subdivide DNA into sections, using restriction enzymes,” she said, praying that Lozinak wouldn’t quiz her in too much detail; as far as she was concerned it was minor miracle that she’d picked up enough genetic know-how to be able to string coherent sentences together. “I also want to find a better technique for pasting the isolated gene sequences into bacterial plasmids, so I can use the altered bacteria as a vector to deliver foreign genes to a host cell.”
Lozinak nodded thoughtfully. To Roberta’s relief, he didn’t look like he found her imaginary experiments too implausible. “A promising field of study,” he commented. “How are you able to tell whether the recombination has succeeded or not?”
Is this a trick question? Roberta worried. “I can’t—yet.” She recalled reading about some new technique that hadn’t quite been perfected yet, and dredged her memory for the details. “Er, ideally, I’d tag the recombinant plasmid with a radioactive probe, but I still haven’t found the right sequence to use as a carrier.”
“We may be able to offer you some assistance in that area,” Lozinak replied slowly. Judging from his benign expression, and the encouraging tone of his voice, she hadn’t flunked the exam so far. “What is your opinion of the function performed by introns?”
Introns, Roberta remembered
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