I guess Abby wasn't too clever, because at least one of you guessed what she was up to. I mean, we've only seen her do this to just about every other human being she encounters thus far. She's a mind hacker… or, whatever the cool future term is for that… which surprisingly I haven't thought of yet.
Still, I'm sure this conclusion is a bit of a head-scratcher. So, why'd she give the gun back? Is she letting these two know she could have shot them at any time, had she wanted, but chose not to? I like to think that's what that is; she's telling them, “Just so long as you guys know…”
If you were hoping she'd use the gun and blast her way to freedom, Luke Skywalker style, that was never going to happen. Abby's a nerd, not an action hero. Even ignoring that these two thugs are probably cyborgs with some degree of bullet resistance, it wasn't too likely she'd be able to gun them both down in close quarters without them wrestling the gun out of her hands and making her eat it. And then, even if she succeeded, she'd still need to find and rescue Delilah, and they'd then need to evade all of Rohan's security apparatus and make good an escape. I'm sure there are lots of comics out there where that storyline would actually be considered viable… but this is not one of those comics.
Next time: Enter the DEATH BOG!!!
I'm sure you're familiar with the indomitable tardigrade. You can boil 'em, freeze 'em, blast 'em with radiation, shoot 'em into space, and they just keep on ticking, or so they say at least. Granted, the “water bear's” supernatural invincibility powers are sometimes exaggerated (like everything else on the internet), but their reputation for being very tough to kill is well deserved. And if you're like me, then the thought has at some point occurred to you: wouldn't it be awesome if they could splice tardigrade DNA with human DNA!
Well, researchers at Tokyo University have done just that. They isolated the so-called Dsup ('damage suppressing') protein unique to tardigrades and found that it binds readily to human DNA. These human-tardigrade hybrid cells demonstrated a remarkably elevated tolerance for high radiation doses. Weird stuff, yes, but also kinda cool!
One of the major challenges to humans making a long-term home in space or on other planets, is radiation exposure. The problem of dealing with radiation exposure, and radiation shielding for spacecraft and habitats, may ultimately limit manned missions to the inner planets, and force Mars colonists to live underground to protect them from cosmic rays and solar flares. One controversial way of alleviating this problem is genetic modification. If we could make humans more radiation resistant, it would open so many new doors for us as a species.
Though it does raise the question, if we were to go that route, at what point would we no longer be the same species?
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