Adam’s Atoms

The atmosphere on Kumára, while similar to that of the Earth, contains small amounts of a chemical compound that either does not exist on Earth at all, or is so rare that it has not been discovered here in modern times. Of course, I cannot say that for sure because, one, I do not know all the chemicals that have been discovered on Earth, and two, I do not know its molecular structure other than that it is a complex compoud of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Besides, I do not even know under what name it is known on Kumára. For years, I called it erythrin in my own private notes, but then I discovered that the name was already used for a different chemical here on Earth. So, I called it Kumáran erythrin for a while. But that would easily be confusing, so I finally started calling it chryserythrin, because the word Kumára means gold, which is χρυσός (chrysos) in Greek, so chryserythrin means the same as Kumáran erythrin.

To say that chryserythrin has some interesting properties would be an understatement. To the alchemists of old it would appear like the elixir of life that they were seeking so desperately. Drinking a potion containing chryserythrin would not miraculously turn them immortal. But inhaling chryserythrin would certainly raise the interest of not only the ancient alchemists but also of modern physicians, as would its injection into the blood stream or into a specific place within the human body.

Just as each molecule of oxygen that we inhale ends up somewhere in an individual cell, so does each molecule of chryserythrin. Once it enters a cell, it locks it up, so to speak. That means oxygen cannot enter that cell. This sounds bad, as that is what carbon monoxide does where it results in the death of the cell. But a cell to which a molecule of chryserythrin enters not only does not die, it revives. For all intents and purposes, chryserythrin repairs the cell from any damage. It even works on the DNA of that cell and only of that cell. The entire cell is rejuvenated, so it becomes like one of the cells of a healthy young person. By the time chryserythrin is done repairing and rejuvenating the cell, the entire molecule of chryserythrin has broken down to smaller molecules, which are bound with other molecules inside the cell. With no chryserythrin left, the cell is unlocked and oxygen can get inside once again. That is why, unlike a cell affected by carbon monoxide, this cell continues to function as any healthy cell. And whenever cell division takes place, all the child cells are just as healthy as their parent. Life not only goes on, it improves.

One of the curious effects of chryserythrin is certain changes it does to the DNA of the cell. Without going to boring details, our DNA can be thought of as a sequence of switches which are either on or off. Each of the switches then defines one or more physical traits which we either have or do not have depending on the state of the switch. To be more precise, we have pairs of those switches in our DNA. We have inherited one in each pair from our father and one from our mother. Many traits (perhaps most) are on if either of the two switches within a pair is turned on. For example, one such switch pair decides whether we have freckles on our cheeks. If both switches are off, no freckles. If either one or both switches are on, we get freckles.

Other traits work differently, inasmuch each switch determines the level of the trait. One of such traits determines whether we have red hair. If neither switch in the pair is on, we do not have red hair. If one is turned on, we have somewhat red hair (such as strawberry blond). If both are on, we have very red hair. (More on that here.)

Chryserythrin affects some of those switches. Part of its wonderful cell-repairing effects is that it turns certain switches to a desirable position. It, for example, cures the cell of diabetes, cancer, and several other undesirable traits. That is to say, it changes the setting of the switches within the DNA, if and only if they are set incorrectly as far as those diseases are concerned.

Some other effects of chryserythrin have nothing to do with curing diseases. They just turn certain traits on, and they do so in both switches of the pair. These include red hair, freckles (not just on the cheeks, but everywhere), a J- or C-shaped nose, thick lips, large eyes, and probably some other traits. So, it should not be surprising that all Kumárans have those traits.

A rare condition affects a small number of Kumárans. I do not have much information about the condition, so I cannot, for example, tell what causes it. But from what I understand, the Kumárans affected by this condition have a type of chemical imbalance in their bodies that causes some major problems. Among other things, it prevents chryserythrin from entering the cells and repairing any damage. The chemicals present in their bodies react with chryserythrin resulting in a complex chemical compound with a negative effect on the body. In effect, it is fair to say that chryserythrin acts in a poisonous way in their bodies.

One of the effects is that these Kumárans do not have red hair. You may recall that for the first 100 years Kumárans look like tiger cubs and at the end of that period undergo a transformation into a humanoid shape. At that time, their hair is blond and only very gradually turns red in the next 100 years. This gradual change does not happen in the Kumárans affected by the condition. They have the genes as all other Kumárans, genes that should cause their hair to become red. But the chemical imbalance and the poison that chryserythrin turns into prevents that from happening. I am not quite clear on whether the poison blocks the formation of the red melanin or it breaks the red melanin down after it is formed but before it can color their hair and skin. Either way, the end result is that their hair stays blond for the rest of their lives.

Naturally, that by itself would be no big deal. But the poison has a much more serious effect on their bodies. It makes them highly autistic. These Kumárans do not communicate with other Kumárans, not even with others affected by the same condition.

They live in a world of their own. A world that is generally filled with many original and creative ideas. While they do not form relationships with others, many express the rich ideas through great works of art. They tend to be highly respected by others, even if the others will rarely get to see them.

Again, I do not know much about this condition (and it is a rare condition), but I wanted to mention it because it belongs to a discussion of chryserythrin.

Chryserythrin is a complex chemical with a fairly short life span. That is to say, it is not chemically stable. If left alone, it eventually breaks down to smaller molecules. Because of that, it is not practical for any kind of long term storage. That is also the main reason why its concentration in Kumáran air is fairly low. There is enough of it that a person present on Kumára will inhale some chryserythrin with each breath, enough to affect several random cells of his body. But there is not much of it because whatever chryserythrin is in the air will break down eventually.

So, where does it come from? The answer lies in the early evolution stages of Kumáran plant life, which produced an abundancy of the chemical precursor of chryserythrin.

I am calling it a precursor because the plants do not contain the molecules of chryserythrin directly. Rather, chryserythrin is produced by oxygenation of the precursor. This oxygenation happens naturally during photosynthesis within the Kumáran plants. All of the resultant chryserythrin is released to the air, none is stored inside the plant. Because of that, eating of the plants does not supply any chryserythrin for the body of the organism that eats them.

Not all of the oxygen produced by photosynthesis is combined with the precursor. Indeed, most of the oxygen is released to the air and only a small amount is combined with the precursor. Thus, the Kumáran atmosphere is just as rich on oxygen as our own atmosphere here on Earth. But it also contains some chryserythrin. And, as already mentioned, much of it eventually breaks down into simpler molecules, which include molecules of oxygen. Nevertheless, the plants continue to produce chryserythrin, so it is always present in Kumáran atmosphere.

Secondly, because the plants (especially in their leaves) are rich on the precursor, burning the dry leaves of those plants produces larger amounts of chryserythrin, much larger, that is, than photosynthesis alone.

Smoking cigarettes made out of Kumáran herbs then provides the smoker with a considerably larger amounts of chryserythrin than plain breathing of regular Kumáran air. We have already seen that by mere instinct the Kumárans smoke heavily on the day they become teens, and continue to smoke, albeit not as heavily, for the rest of the teen century of their lives. It is no coincidence: The transition from child to adult is quite rapid. The ample supply of chryserythrin helps adjust their bodies to all those changes.

We have also seen that they smoke during their mating practices. This, too, is instinctive. It helps them fix any cellular damage and ensure that they do not pass any damaged genes on to their offspring.

Thus, for Kumárans smoking is the best way of staying in good physical shape, as strange as this may sound to an Earthling. And, of course, that explains why the Kumárans do not put filters on their cigarettes, as those would only diminish the benefits of smoking.

All of this poses the question what effect the exposure to chryserythrin would have on humans. If you or I somehow landed on Kumára, would suddenly our entire genetic makeup be rewritten and would we then turn into Kumárans?

Well, first of all, with each breath we would only inhale several molecules of chryserythrin. So whatever effect it would have on us, it would only affect several cells of our bodies. Assuming that about a hundred cells would be affected every second of our exposure and that no cell would be affected twice, within a year some 3,155,760,000 (three billion) cells would be affected. As we have trillions of cells in our bodies, we would have to spend thousands of years on Kumára for them all to be affected.

Perhaps if we chain smoked Kumáran cigarettes, we might get some serious effect on our bodies (especially since the affected cells would be the healthiest cells in the body and might affect most of the body through cell division). Even then, we would not become Kumárans. Nowhere did I say that chryserythrin would convert non-Kumáran DNA into Kumáran DNA (if it did, all animal species living on Kumára would become humanoid Kumárans, and that just does not happen).

But it would repair any damage to those cells, and it would turn some of the switches in our DNA to a specific position. Our DNA is not same as that of the Kumárans (if it were, we would the same, which we are not), but there are many similarities to it. As far as I know, the Kumárans have visited the Earth long ago, well before the recorded history. They kept very low profile because they did not want to affect the development of our civilization. At that time, they have collected plenty of data, including enough samples to study the structure of our DNA. And it turns out that while it is different, it is also very similar, and some parts of it are the same.

Those parts of our DNA that are the same as Kumáran DNA would be affected exactly the same way as it affects the Kumárans. For one, it would cure the cell from any cancer, diabetes, and many other problems. It would also instruct the DNA to produce red hair, freckles, large eyes, thick lips, and a J- or C-shaped nose. Now, remember, those changes would affect random cells of the body. So, suppose it changed a cell inside your heart. It would certainly not give you red hair because your hair color is not controlled by your heart. It would not help you with diabetes, etc, for the same reason.

But if you managed to inject a concentrated liquid solution of chryserythrin directly into a well chosen region of your pancreas, it might cure you of diabetes. If you injected it all over your scalp, it might get you red hair. If you injected it directly into a tumor, it might cure you of cancer. So, yes, chryserythrin would be very useful in treating many human ailments.

It could also be used for cosmetic purposes if you wanted red hair, freckles, or thick lips. It would, however, not give you a nicely shaped nose. That is because the shape of your nose is determined by the bones inside it. And if that bone has already grown to a certain size, changing the surrounding DNA is probably not going to just remove the existing bone. But if you are still quite young, it might prevent any further growth of any bump or hook in your nose.

Last but not least, if you injected enough of it into your reproductive organs, it would affect the genes that you pass on to your children. If both you and your spouse did that, from then on all of your children would be free of any genetic diseases and would have red hair, freckles, large eyes, thick lips, and a J- or C-shaped nose.

Now, if you simply got certain amounts of chryserythrin into your body through smoking Kumáran cigarettes or through a direct infusion into your blood stream, the effect would spread randomly but most likely evenly around your body. So, if it affected 30% of your body, some 30% of your hair would be red, some 30% of your skin would eventually freckle up, some 30% of your diabetic pancreas would start producing insulin again, and so on. So, you would be healthier though not fully cured. And people would probably start thinking of you as a redhead even if only 30% of your hair was red because the 30% would be evenly spread around and would be enough to give the overall visual impression of having red hair. If you were suffering from baldness, some 30% of the bald area would start growing hair, and all of that would be red. Since chryserythin rejuvenates those cells, you would also look and feel younger (unless you still are quite young anyway).

Additionally, there would be a 30% probability of your passing the modified genes on to your offspring. That does not mean that you would pass it on to 30% of your children, or that you would pass 30% of the modifications on. It means that if a group of 100 people each had the same 30% effect, about 30 of them would pass the modified genes on to all of their children and the remaining 70 would pass them on to none of their children.

Of course, as far as I know, chryserythrin is not present on Earth, so any of it is a moot point for the time being.