401: Chapter 851 Questioning the Source of Data in Zhao Yang's Paper!

"There's no need. This Directed Evolution mechanism can only be described in its entirety; splitting it into smaller papers is completely meaningless..."

Hearing Zhao Yang's words, Professor Gu Ming fell silent for a moment, then said, "Alright then, I'll find some top experts in this field domestically to review the manuscript! In my opinion, there are no issues with this paper."

"Mm!"

Zhao Yang nodded.

The double-blind review process took a few days. Three top Biology scholars in the country received the anonymous manuscript, and after reviewing it, all gave extremely high praise along with a few minor suggestions for revision.

Zhao Yang revised it point by point and sent it back, quickly receiving a notification of acceptance.

The system notification chime arrived right on schedule.

"Ding! Detected that User is about to publish a breakthrough Biology paper. Received Biology experience +200,000!"

The system chime ringing in his ears brought a slight sense of joy to Zhao Yang.

Although he had long known that a paper of this caliber would not yield little experience for him, the number 200,000 still exceeded Zhao Yang's expectations.

Currently, with 200,000 Biology experience gained, his cumulative Biology experience had exceeded 360,000, and he was only one paper of the same caliber away from the 500,000 upgrade threshold.

It looked like an upgrade was within reach!

Zhao Yang was quite satisfied.

Half a month later, the paper was officially published in the "Spark Biology Journal." This paper took up a large portion of the current issue, and not long after the journal was released, online public opinion began to heat up.

"I finished reading the abstract, and to be honest, I only understood about a third of it. But I understood the four words 'Directed Evolution.' Is God Zhao telling us that we might be able to actively control the direction of evolution through drugs in the future?"

"Yes, what God Zhao explains in the paper is that cells will actively change their own functions under specific signaling environments, which means it is equivalent to being able to achieve Directed Evolution in the human body through drugs or other means."

"Does that mean there might be even more potent drugs in the future? Is the Foundation Establishment Pill just an appetizer?"

"Very likely!"

"I think God Zhao must still be hiding more things up his sleeve. This paper only discusses the mechanism and doesn't cover specific applications; he must have kept the key parts for himself."

"To be honest, I feel that Zhao Yang is telling us step by step through his papers that humans can actively evolve through scientific means. This stuff really seems a bit like alchemy! If this were in ancient times, God Zhao would at least be the founding patriarch of an alchemy sect."

"The title 'Alchemy Patriarch' is good. Let's not call him God Zhao anymore; let's just call him Patriarch Zhao, hahaha."

"Makes sense, Foundation Establishment Pill, hahahaha! Calling him Patriarch is spot on!"

"So, is Patriarch Zhao going to research the Golden Core stage next?"

"Can you guys be a bit more serious? He is a proper scientist."

"What's wrong with being a scientist? He named the drug Foundation Establishment Pill himself; can he blame us for calling him the Patriarch?"

While domestic netizens were discussing it heatedly, the foreign internet was also frantically circulating translated versions of the paper. Because Zhao Yang insisted on publishing only in Chinese, foreign scholars and media had to scramble to find reliable translations.

Several mainstream Western scientific media websites posted English translations of the paper. Some were translated quite well, while others were clumsy, but regardless of the translation quality, everyone who read it realized the weight of this paper.

Professor Michael Ross was the first to speak out on Twitter. He posted a long article, the wording of which was completely different from when he previously criticized Zhao Yang for "narrow nationalism."

"I have just read Professor Zhao Yang's paper on Directed Evolution. In this paper, Professor Zhao Yang describes the mechanism of cellular Directed Evolution in detail. In my opinion, it has essentially touched upon the underlying secrets of gene expression regulation.

This is no longer simple antioxidant or metabolic enhancement, but a directional evolution where cells actively change their own functions under specific signaling environments. I have carefully checked all the experimental data in the paper, and frankly speaking, the sources of some data leave me very confused.

According to the cell response speed and proteome reconstruction efficiency described in the paper, the evolution speed exhibited by these experimental subjects has far exceeded any currently known rate of Nature mutation. What exactly did he do in the laboratory to allow the cells to complete Directed Evolution at such a speed?

I am not questioning the data for being fabricated; as a peer, I sincerely hope that Dr. Zhao Yang can disclose more experimental details so that we can replicate his experiments."

After Professor Ross's tweet was posted, the academic discussion area on the foreign internet immediately became lively. Some people supported Ross's view, saying that certain data in the paper indeed exceeded the academic community's current consensus on the speed of cellular evolution, and that Zhao Yang should provide more detailed experimental methods and raw data.

Others said that Professor Ross, having gained nothing from criticizing Zhao Yang last time, changed his strategy this time and switched to "sincere questioning" to continue nitpicking. Zhao Yang's paper clearly had no issues, but he was just looking for trouble!

The two groups argued endlessly online. Soon, more foreign scholars joined the discussion, and the wave of skepticism started from Twitter and quickly spread to major scientific forums and reader comment sections of professional journals.

Similar voices emerged intensively; some questioned the statistical significance of the experimental data, others questioned whether the control group design was reasonable, and some even directly implied that Zhao Yang had selectively disclosed data that was favorable to him.

These doubts converged into a significant wave of protest in a short period and were reported by several mainstream Western media outlets under the headline "Multiple Scientists Call on Zhao Yang to Disclose Raw Data."

Terence Tao was scrolling through Twitter when he saw that long post from Ross. He read through the entire discussion thread from beginning to end, looked at a few forwarded media reports, then left the discussion room of the School of Mathematics and walked toward Zhao Yang's office.

When he pushed the door open, Zhao Yang was standing on the podium, teaching a class to a few students in the field of mathematics.

The whiteboard was covered with derivations regarding the Waring's problem exponent and estimates; Wang Hong was sitting in the front row, her pen spinning rapidly in her hand.

After Zhao Yang finished speaking, his gaze turned toward Professor Tao at the door, and he smiled.

"Professor Tao, what brings you to my place in your spare time today! Is something the matter?"

"Zhao Yang, the foreign internet is making a fuss again. I just saw that Professor Ross posted a long article saying that your data exceeds any known rate of Nature mutation, asking what exactly you did in the laboratory, and casting doubt on your data... I flipped through the discussions in the research groups of several cooperative universities, and many people are worried that if this is not handled well, it will directly affect the international credibility of the Spark Biology Journal."

As he spoke, a trace of worry flashed across Professor Tao's face. He still cared deeply about the development of Zhao Yang's academic journal and had always paid close attention to it.

He did not want the Spark Biology Journal to be extinguished just like that.

Zhao Yang put the chalk in his hand back into the chalk tray and clapped the chalk dust off his hands.

With a faint smile on his face, he looked at Professor Tao and said.

"I would only be surprised if the foreign internet stopped making ignorant criticisms of my Chinese journal.

Besides, international credibility is not something that disappears just because it isn't handled well; facts are facts."

As he spoke, Zhao Yang paused.

"My paper's data sources are not problematic. Every set of experiments has complete raw records and backups, and the breeding and drug administration processes for the mouse models are all traceable. The information already in the paper is sufficient for peers to replicate and verify; as for whether they believe it or not, that is their business.

I am not their father, so there is no reason for me to hold their hands while they do research. It's meaningless."