Chapter 773 Universe Experiment No.25

Earth

May 23, 1973

United States, Maryland

"When did it die?"

"Professor Calhoun, just not long ago..."

While muttering about the experiment, the two ran towards their laboratory, a farm warehouse.

They boarded the second floor of the farm warehouse and unveiled a black curtain, revealing a large box with a length of 2.57 meters and a height of 1.37 meters.

This is a utopia, a utopia belonging to the mice-Universe 25.

Universe 25 was built by John Calhoun and his experimental facilitators. It is a perfect habitat for mice.

Each of the 16 residential areas divided evenly from the center of the box has its own drinking fountain, food warehouse, and rest nest.

According to design calculations, only when the number of rats exceeds 3840, there will be a shortage of nests, when there are 6,144 rats, there will be insufficient water resources, and when there are 9,500 rats, food will be a problem.

In addition, the first eight mice introduced into the residence were screened for diseases to ensure that the experiment in the residence would not cause errors due to foreign diseases.

The temperature of the residence itself is also maintained between 20C and 31C through fans and heating to ensure that the temperature is not the cause of problems in Universe 25. In addition, Universe 25 does not have any predators of rats.

In a world with no natural enemies, no disease, no hunger, and no housing problems, all possible causes of population decline are excluded.

John Calhoun wanted to know whether the hand of God that suppressed the number of rats in the utopian world he constructed would still appear as in past experiments.

John Calhoun held up the corpse of the male mouse with a trembling hand. The answer was already revealed.

God appeared!

The Universe Experiment No. 25 lasted for 1780 days. With the death of the last male rat, the rats completely lost any possibility of reproduction.

John Calhoun recalled the beginning of the experiment...

July 9, 1968, the first day of the 25th cosmic experiment. Four male rats and four female rats were put into the habitat.

After these little mice spent 3 months getting acquainted with the utopia of Universe 25, they settled down, began to divide their own territories, and then began to choose mates and mate.

After the 104th day, Universe 25 ushered in the birth of the first litter of mouse cubs.

Subsequently, the number of experimental mice increased almost exponentially.

From the 100th day to the 300th day, the population of mice doubled every 55 days, 20, 40, 160, 320, 640. It was not until 620 that the birth rate doubled from 55 days to It only started to double in 145 days.

From the 86th day to the 338th day, this time period is the most frequent stage of mice birth.

With the rapid increase in the number of mice, John Calhoun and the others noticed that the number of mice born in each territory is not equal, even though all territories are divided equally from the center in a radial pattern.

Only 13 mice were born in the territory of the northeast corner in 252 days, and 111 mice were born in the opposite southwest corner, 8.5 times as many.

This is the law of the weak eating the strong. Only the strong can have the right to mate, and it will be easier to give birth to offspring.

The experiment so far has been very normal, whether it is breeding or dividing the territory, it is the same as John Calhoun and the others thought before the experiment.

With the end of the population explosion phase, Universe 25 entered a slow period.

From day 315, the growth of the number of mice doubled from 55 days to 145 days, and the number of experimental mice reached the highest peak of the entire experiment at 2,200.

However, this result is where the problem lies. Theoretically, Universe 25 will need to reach 3840 mice before there will be a shortage of nests and 6144 mice will have insufficient water.

There is no shortage of water, no food, no disease, no natural enemies, and a large enough world, but when the number has not exceeded the limit of carrying capacity, this mouse utopia is full.

It's like an invisible hand of God is suppressing the number of experimental mice-John Calhoun thought.

Why is this happening?

Is there really a god?

Of course not, everything is developed in a reasonable manner. The suppression of the number of mice comes from themselves. This is the conclusion reached by John Calhoun after summing up the experiment.

Although Universe 25 has plenty of living space and food, it is filled with the social responsibilities of the rats.

In nature, there are not many opportunities for adult mice to die of old age. Those adult mice will take over the burden of their elders and become the role of protecting territory, protecting females, and reproducing offspring.

When the number of adult mice living in a territory exceeds the number required by the territory, these adult mice will move outward to develop new territories. However, these two points are impossible to appear in Universe 25. .

After adulthood, the little mice who couldn't find themselves in the mouse society were lost. The male rats who did not belong to any territory began to gather in the center of Universe 25.

These little mice gradually did not engage in social activities with any other mice, ignored each other, and gradually showed violent tendencies.

Usually a mouse that disturbs other people just because it comes back from eating will suddenly become the target of being attacked, and the attacked person will not try to escape or fight back, but when other mice come to disturb its tranquility, it will be attacked. The person will also become extremely violent.

Similarly, female mice that cannot find a place in society will choose to be higher. Those female mice that give birth to young mice will not choose to live in seclusion. There are no signs of violence and no signs of social interaction among them. Just like hermits isolated from the world.

As the number of mice with nowhere to go increases, the male mice who take up the job of protecting territories are becoming less and less aware of their territories, but for female mice, the protection of territories decreases. Realized that the chance of infringement of the nest used by oneself for nurturing is getting higher and higher.

The concept of territory has gradually faded, and the female rats responsible for nurturing have become more aggressive, even directly replacing the male rats who should be responsible for protecting the territory. This aggressiveness is not only for outsiders, but for female rats. The aggressiveness of the mouse has gradually transferred to its own offspring~lightnovelpub.net~ Many unweaned pups have also become the targets of female rats, and will even be expelled from the nest and become the new generation prematurely.

Since then, the physiological periods of the mice have been disrupted, the conception rate has dropped, and even the number of births per litter has dropped.

In the process of frequent transfer of nests by female rats, many young rats were forgotten and abandoned, and many young rats "disappeared" between statistics.

It is these reasons that caused the fertility rate of mice to drop to a complete stop.

Everything is reasonable and reasonable. A certain social problem triggered a series of chain reactions, leading to the destruction of Universe 25. The newborn rats could not find their own social position, cut off social interaction, refused to have children, and abandoned their cubs. ...

But is that the case?

In a river system that is tens of thousands of light-years away from the earth, an extraterrestrial civilization whose technology is not known for many generations higher than the earth also did a similar experiment. They used a river system to create a utopia belonging to civilization. Also sown the seeds of civilization in this utopia...

(End of this chapter)