[4] Epi-ABLE

Alright, time to talk about science.

So I've always been interested by the whole collapse radiation and Epiphyllum thing. And being in a biochemistry-related program, what better thing could I do than to COMPLETELY OVERANALYZE the GFlore to create my own twisted headcanon?

So, I like to imagine that collapse fluid is basically like a liquid. Or rather, it's some sort of solute that can be dissolved in water, or be concentrated and precipitated into a crystal. Collapse radiation dissolved in the water represent a major issue to all life as they circulate and spread via the hydrologic cycle and can spend long periods in subterranean and oceanic reservoirs. However, as long as we can remove the radiation near the surface, we can create zones safe for habitation. That's my headcanon for how green and white zones work. But what if you couldn't afford expensive purification tech? For cleaning heavily contaminated soil, one option would be to use Epiphyllum-based bioremediation, similar to how we use plants to leach heavy metals out of the soil. The problem, then, is disposing of the plants before they bloom and spread the radiation even more.

[Begin Transcript]

Throwback to the time I worked part-time at the Rhine Lab Life Sciences division in late 2058. We were working on this thing called Project Epi-ABLE (Epiphyllum-Assisted Bioremediation of Lost Environments).

The team was led by Dr. Aaron Siegel. Basically, we were trying to harness the Epiphyllum flowers' ability to bioaccumulate collapse radiation from the ground to de-contaminated irradiated areas. The flowers were supposed to grow and soak up as much radiation as they could, then they would be uprooted and disposed of safely.

The main problems we faced back then was the depth at which the flowers could leach collapse radiation from, and their efficiency in removing the radiation as a percentage of original radiation density. We essentially experimented on different mutant alleles for certain genes associated with bioremediation ability. We mostly studied the Res2 gene from the species Epiphyllum azuris.

Through our research, we were able to determine specific parts of the Res2 sequence that had an effect on the flowers' efficacy. Notably, we identified a series of codons near amino acids ~605 which seemed to form some type of receptor. We were able to duplicate that DNA segment and significantly increase the speed at which E. azuris took on collapse radiation.

5 years later, I look back upon my experiences there fondly. If we all would just put our political differences aside and focused on the greater good, a lot less people would've died. I've been keeping track of the team's publications, and now I'm even involved in the branch-off of that project made by the girls over at the Sangvis Ferri Mobile Task Force. We call it "Azure Shield," and the goal is to adapt the Epi-ABLE strain for use in the local Carpathian foothills. Shining light in a brave new world.

[End Transcript]