Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 474 - 118 Pretending to be Emotional About the Passage of Time

Chapter 474: Chapter 118 Pretending to be Emotional About the Passage of Time

The utilization rate of sunlight by plants is actually very low.

Not all the sunlight that shines on plant leaves is absorbed; plants only absorb a portion of it and reflect the green and other invisible light. Some light passes through without being absorbed, and a part increases the temperature of the leaves, causing water in the leaves to evaporate to ensure transpiration proceeds so that the plants can absorb nutrients from the soil.

The energy that is actually converted into chemical energy by photosynthesis is at most just a few percent, and it’s almost impossible for it to exceed six percent.

It should be said that the vast majority of plants have a photosynthetic utilization rate of sunlight that is much lower than one percent.

Those that can exceed one percent during their growth stage are already considered decent crops.

Even if these high energy conversion rate plants are not tasty to humans, humans can use them as fodder to develop animal husbandry or even convert them into industrial raw materials.

According to this standard, the conversion rate of rice, a major food crop, is also just between 0.3% and 2% (the difference between non-fine varieties and fine varieties).

As for solar panels...

Solar panels, now they are impressive.

The conversion efficiency of these devices is theoretically expected to reach forty-four percent around 2020.

By stacking solar panels with various coatings and different materials, most frequency bands can be utilized with basically no light transmission.

Compared to plants who are satisfied with just "enough," solar panels, which are inherently designed to absorb light energy, will naturally be more efficient.

And Yawgmoth Voigt’s desire was to build a Dyson Cloud.

Since it is a Dyson Cloud, a structure to efficiently harness solar energy, it naturally requires a large number of high-conversion-rate solar panels. Located in space, the Dyson Cloud could also utilize solar wavelengths that are severely absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere.

Thanks to the relentless efforts of the Scientific Knight Order, Protectors have been able to stably produce panels with a conversion rate of over fifty percent, and in laboratory conditions, Scientific Knights are continuously approaching the limits allowed by physical laws.

And based on... various public channels of scholarly papers, the Heroes also have decent technology in this area.

A palm-sized solar panel has a solar energy conversion efficiency equivalent to one or two hundred leaves of the same area.

Of course, this is largely because solar panels only need to convert light energy into electricity.

But, electricity can be directly absorbed by some Metal-based organisms.

Some Metal-based organisms can rely on electricity to obtain the energy they need to survive.

Although this energy utilization rate is also far less than one hundred percent.

But, with the right settings...

"This is like an artificial leaf..." Xiang Shan marveled.

Fungi also have symbiotic relationships with plants. For instance, lichens are formed by the symbiosis of fungi and moss.

In this relationship, the moss is responsible for photosynthesis, solidifying solar energy to provide energy for the whole system, while the fungi decompose the organic materials left from dead plants, providing water and inorganic salts to plants without roots.

Under the premise of Metal-based modifications, "plants" can now be replaced by "mechanical" substitutes.

This is akin to installing a "photosynthetic prosthetic body" on plants and fungal colonies.

In the wild, a very small solar panel won’t attract the attention of satellites.

After all, the Earth itself is not made up of uniform materials, and neither is the air.

Therefore, it’s quite normal for a small area to be slightly warmer than its surroundings.

However, if a small fixed-area device keeps moving, that’s problematic.

That’s why many vehicles cannot depart during the day.

And these ultra-small solar panels were very cost-effective and made from commonly available materials, causing minimal conflict with the resource needs of the Heroes.

So they were used for this purpose.

Xiang Shan looked at the lichen formed by the symbiosis of fungi and plants and asked, "So... um, were these fungi specially cultivated too? Where did you get the gene editing tools to do this?"

Thanks to Yawgmoth, gene editing was a fairly mature technology. With a complete set of tools, anyone could perform gene editing in a kitchen-level environment—of course, this didn’t guarantee the edits would result in the desired traits.

After all, "off-target" effects were common in gene editing.

If Yawgmoth’s previous gene editing was like using a Great Barrier Blade for neurosurgery, then Mr. Yawgmoth Voigt’s improved gene editing technique was roughly akin to using a kitchen knife for thoracic surgery.

But nature ultimately did not create a biological mechanism "specifically for editing genes."

Before Yawgmoth, transgenic results were piled on. Using a Great Barrier Blade to carry out thousands of surgeries, considering it a success if even one survived.

Yawgmoth did improve this situation. But even for the simplest appendicitis surgery, if you don’t use a scalpel, there are still chances of failure.

Xiang Shan was indeed very curious about the Heroes now having a complete set of gene editing tools.

The most important part of "gene editing tools" were the various enzymes that could cut and splice DNA.

And all organic substances could be metabolized quickly by microorganisms using the Yawill extraction method.

It’s just that the enzymes involved in gene editing tools were a bit more specialized.

"Some simple potions can be stolen directly from the Scientific Knight Order. Some are provided by Sects. It’s a bit hard to find a complete set of gene editing tools here, though. I’ve heard that the Heroes in Africa can prepare a full set."

Jader answered honestly.

Xiang Shan pondered for a moment, "Hmm... so how were these electricity-generating fungi cultivated?"

"Electricity-generating fungi... cultivating..." Jader was somewhat puzzled, "After the Ichigo infection event, the surviving fungi all had metal-based genetic segments. By using potions to intensify the horizontal transfer of genetic information between different colonies and then through selection, it is easy to screen out such fungi..."

"The Ichigo infection event..."

Xiang Shan’s tone was slightly puzzled.

But he realized that others were confused by his own confusion about this event.

At the same time, the memories of the Eighth Martial God provided a standard answer.

The "Ichigo infection event" referred to "Biosphere One," the event where Earth’s biosphere was infected.

And according to how people from Jianghu remembered it eighty years ago, this historical event is now believed to be the "Usurper of the State’s deployment of genetic weapons during the final phase of the Ascension War."

The Eighth Martial God scoffed at this widely circulated claim that the "Usurper of the State used genetic weapons to suppress the Heroes."

In the view of the Eighth Martial God, enemies of the Usurper of the State, namely the Heroes, were all Cybermen with full cybernetic enhancements.

Using genetic weapons against such individuals would be insane. Other than harming civilians, this action had no benefits.

However, this part of the memory was not loaded into the "Legacy" by the Eighth Martial God.

And Xiang Shan’s Biological Brain also instinctively felt something was off.

"The Ichigo infection event huh..." Xiang Shan pondered, "Back then, it wasn’t called that."

He pretended to sigh at the passage of time.

After all, in the era of the Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan, it indeed didn’t have this name.