The specimen has been contained in a nutrient solution which will provide the appropriate sustenance to promote growth and cell division.” Press could tell from Laura’s tone of voice that she was used to explaining her procedures to an audience; more than likely, she often had assistants and grad students watching her methods and asking questions while she worked. Right now the group was in the observation room in an unused portion of the Virus Research Lab at the Los Angeles campus of the University of California. Laura was operating two levers—they looked like joysticks—and controlling the precise movements of a mechanism within a glass box inside an isolation chamber from which they were separated by a five-foot-square quartz window. A lab worker with a name tag that said MICHELLE PURDUE stood to the side, ready to assist. Gathered around, the team watched the process on two video monitors mounted on the console directly in front of the controls. One recorded the overall layout of the isolation chamber, while the other showed the viewpoint of a smaller, high-resolution camera integrated within the microscope and mounted inside the glass box to show the actual process of injecting the DNA.
