Metamorphosis

1

Aw, I was beginning

to think you weren't coming.

Game is almost over.

Doesn't look like I missed too much.

It's a game between teachers

and students of the various departments.

Mike, who is the power behind Houseman?

Behind Houseman? God.

The board of director likes him about

as much as a blast of smoke in the eyes.

Then how is it last year he was able

to attain financing of 200,000 dollars?

Oh, yeah, yeah!

Because our young, eccentric

and subordinate Dr. Houseman

is the most brilliant genetic

engineer the American University

has produced in the last 10 years.

You don't ask a genius

how he spends his money.

That is Peter Houseman.

Physiology and medicine

have cast light on the most

inaccessible recesses of our organisms.

Immunology has routed hundreds

of invisible enemies to our health and...

Embryology has accomplished the joining

of ovium and spermatoza in-vitro.

But human genetics has taken only

the first tentative steps forward.

The genome is formed of approximately

three billion components.

These components are the letters

in the genetic alphabet.

Now calculate that if one wished

to print the genome of man

with an average of 10,000

characters per page...

Aren't you exaggerating a little?

I only want to see

if I can make him stutter.

...1,000 pages each.

And it is in the vast

encyclopedia that our...

Hereditary patrimony of our

species must be contained.

Not only the color of our eyes.

Not only the color of our hair.

Not only the masterpiece of nature

which happens to be the exciting

thighs of our generous Patricia.

But also the memory of millions

of years of evolution.

Fading shadows of races and generations

which have all disappeared.

It is our family album.

Now, to be able to leaf

through it from beginning to end

and read it would be to know our past.

Who we were,

who we are and most importantly,

what we will become.

Professor, message.

Dr. Houseman, please, a moment.

You can't go in there!

There is no point being angry with me.

I can't do anything.

And just whose good idea is this?

Not mine.

The commission has decided

that all funding requests

must be accompanied by a report

which details all work in progress.

As well as the obligation to publish all

experiments funded during the past year.

This is not the agreement that we made

when you offered to have me

teach at this university!

Peter, be reasonable.

It's an order from

the head office in New York.

This is a private university.

They want to know where the money

they invest in research ends up!

If they send a woman from

the administration to inspect,

it's not up to us

and we can't do anything.

I took this job because

you assured me a full liberty

to carry on my research

with no strings attached.

No one wants to attach any strings.

They only want a report

on your experiments to date.

Christ, Peter! Your department

has gobbed down almost

a quarter of a million dollars in two years

and you haven't published a line!

- Oh, Lloyd, how are you?

- Oh, hello, Mike.

- Dr. Owen.

- Hi.

Sally, this is Professor Lloyd,

leads the biology department.

Oh, Miss Donnelly!

And Dr. Owen is his assistant.

- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

So, you're from New York.

Mike!

Excuse me.

Mike, I need your help.

- If I can, Peter...

- Of course you can!

You're one of the most senior

members of the staff

and the only one with a little brains.

Mike, some inspectors-type

is sticking her nose

into the allocation of funds

for research.

- Peter, I don't think...

- And I am being

categorically forced into publishing

my work before it's finished.

Each of us has to publish

his work, myself included.

I don't see why you

should be the exception.

Because I don't write jokes and I wouldn't

get the same laughs as you.

I'm sorry, Peter. I can't do anything.

- Mike!

- We'd better go. Gentlemen.

Mike!

Publishing my work before it's concluded

is as much as calling it quits!

And it's all the fault of some

hysterical old maid in menopause!

You were at the game yesterday,

weren't you?

Peter Houseman.

Maybe you can convince him

to change his mind.

I'll try.

But I wouldn't expect too much from

an hysterical old maid in menopause.

Oh, Christ!

What's the composition?

Nine parts serum

and one part glucose dioxide.

One part in 14.

- Triple the glucose.

- But we'll kill him!

I know, but I don't want to run the risk

of losing direction if it's too weak!

I'm sorry, Willy,

we're running out of time.

It's not my fault.

It's penetrated

the suprachiasmatic nucleus.

Delta waves normal.

Two cycles per second.

Cardiac pressure normal.

Willy, it's perfect.

No, no, it's not perfect.

The alpha and beta waves are increasing.

The pressure is rising.

It's an effect of the radiation

on the limbic circuit evolution.

It's absorbing too quickly.

Still rising.

Absurd. It's ridiculous!

Well, it is, nonetheless,

a fascinating theory.

If the data is exact.

It's impossible. He's making fun of us.

Houseman, your report is as

scanty as it is fascinating.

And notably imaginative.

It would therefore be timely

for you to elucidate

the objective of your research.

Given your request for new funding

of 150,000 dollars.

I was requested to report

on what I was doing

and to justify my expenses of last year.

In my report, everything is

specified down to the last cent.

Now, as far as my experiments

are concerned,

they are based on

the theory of the mechanism

of auto-destruction by Brunet.

A ridiculous theory which was

abandoned by Brunet himself!

He abandoned it because, at the time,

technology for proving it

didn't yet exist.

Today, it is possible.

And you have been successful?

Yes, even if further

experiments are needed.

You mean to say you've successfully

identified the genetic sequence?

- Yes.

- But that's magnificent!

Undoubtedly.

Now, let me see if I have

this right, Dr. Houseman.

If you inhibit that protein,

canceling the genetic code

which creates it,

in practice the cells will

reproduce themselves integrally

and in a constant manner, hmm?

- Yes.

- So then,

the organs would no longer

become diseased.

The cells of the liver, brain,

bones, the skin would

reproduce themselves forever.

Which means that old age

would be defeated.

- And even death.

- Perhaps.

You are not only arrogant

and megalomaniacal,

you're also stupid.

- May I go now?

- Dr. Houseman,

your experiments carried out to date,

on what have they been performed?

On cell cultures.

This I took for granted.

But of what parasite?

No parasites.

On rats, monkeys?

Human embryos.

Those sons of b*tches!

Those bureaucrats!

The only thing they care about

is their soft job,

and that pig Lloyd would trade

his only remaining leg

to see me with my back against the wall.

Perhaps a more

detailed research. One with...

With all the results of the experi...

No!

I want to finish the experiment

and then report on it

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