The Flood: Host Physiology & Communication

— — — — —

doi: 07SUJNIT141ROSTELLHM988

The Flood: Host Physiology & Communication

Date: September 30th

, 2552

Researcher: Dr. Kaighn Morlok

Assistant : Jordan Long

Artificial Intelligence: Mother Goose [MG]

***Warning***

Digital Copies Only

Abstract: Auto-search from Cache 9—: [A.I.—Mother Goose (MG): Please excuse the sections

of blacked out text. I do not fully understand Dr. Morlok‟s intentions for it.]

An entity known as The Flood was retrieved [MG: Without authorization] and observed

metastasizing hosts through direct contact with two mammals following method standards RH-

561. Canis lupus familiaris breeds: German Shepherd & Unknown Mix. Induced consciousness

required for Johnson Avery Johnson AveryJohnson Avery Johnson Avery. Results show

aggravated neuron creation on skin tissues involving Johnson Avery Johnson Avery Johnson

Avery Johnson Avery Johnson Avery Johnson Avery Johnson Avery and fusion in vertebrae L4,

T8 and T13 Johnson Avery Johnson Avery Johnson Avery Johnson Avery Johnson Avery. Two

types of entangled neurons were Johnson Avery Johnson Avery Johnson Avery .Specimens fully

converted in an average of 35 seconds unless encounter time Johnson Avery Johnson Avery

Johnson Avery Johnson Avery. Accidental exposure to General Voust Avery Johnson Avery

Johnson. Hydra declared on UNSC Hopeful.

Introduction

Pardon the blatant disregard for formatting by UPFA standards. I hope you‟ll understand. Mother

Goose has cleaned up some of the mess for me.

I remember joining the front lines in the field of virology because I thought the battle between

man and virus had always been the most beautiful and silent of all wars. I was 15 years old [MG:

year 2532].

The construction lights I strung from the rafters shone dryly on my Border Collie‟s skin. I‟d

flayed her [MG: Ellie] open on the tool bench. Twenty minutes after she died I‟d extracted a

sample of blood from her inferior cornu (descending horn of the lateral ventricle) and from her

kidneys. I used power tools to get through the skull. It was horrible, but I was mad, and I knew

something inside her had done this.

I had to find out “Why?”

Crows cawed and hopped along the trail of blood leading from the road and through the grass to

the garage. The birds paid more attention than the neighbors. I had to fight them off Ellie after

she got hit by the car, and I cleaned off my hands in a dirty sink while the blood spun down in

my dad‟s old centrifuge. It was beautiful. The way those lights glinted off the tubes as they

twirled and whirred air into my face. A few eye dropper squeezes and glass slides later I was

looking through the lens of a near antique HALS 7600 at an angry, helical cell. I uploaded the

picture and cross referenced it with every other known microscopic organism in the CAA‟s

database. It came back unknown. (Lyssavirus rabies was its best guess due to its structure).

This is what made Ellie stop chewing the rubber penguin toy we were playing with in the back

yard. Made her frothy mouth jerk after a car honked on the road. Made her run silently head first

into traffic as I dove and just barely grazed her collar with my fingertips.

The virus was in samples from her kidneys as well as her lateral ventricle. I had to take off her

head and freeze it in order to study all of her brain over the next two weeks. I mowed the lawn

(to cover up the blood) and buried the rest of her. My parents thought she ran away. They bought

me a video game, or something, to make up for it. [MG: Credit history trace for Mr. & Mrs.

Morlok shows they purchased him another dog a week after Ellie‟s “disappearance”.]

The disease freely passed through the blood brain barrier while the T lymphocytes (white blood

cells) that should have destroyed the virus did not. This meant the virus was blocking the G-

protiens that would have allowed T lymphocytes to cross the barrier, just like rabies. It

embedded itself into the ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra. There it innervated neurons

in order to flood her mesolibic pathway (amygdale & nucleus accumbens) with dopamine in a

similar fashion to benzoylmethylecgonine (cocaine). Because of the sudden onset of symptoms

(immediately after the car honked) I guessed, and was right, that the virus was triggered in the

presence of sounds between 420-440 hz—the range of a car horn.

Secondly, the sound activated a concentration of the virus particles in her anterior pituitary

gland. This resulted in a calculated signal form the brain which released acetycholine from

preganglionic sympathetic fibers. Epinephrine surged from the adrenal medulla initiating her

“fight or fight” response. The experience it created inside her head was one of pure happiness

and an unrelenting desire to run toward noise.

She felt euphoria, processed sounds we can‟t even imagine and ran right to the choir of angels

she heard roaring down the street.

I later found the virus cycle extended to the black birds that had watched me anxiously from

power lines as I drug Ellie through the grass. They carried the virus‟s desired host; the

blackberry seeds nestled in their stomachs. There it altered the three transcription factors in the

plant‟s DNA allowing the mutated one to grow and bear fruit in two weeks. Ellie had consumed

its fruit under the oak tree behind my house where bird droppings splattered against the bark and

hit the ground. The new plant still had black berries, but they released a pleasant musk upon

being disturbed and contained the virus that killed her. I called it Perfervid Incept.

Now for the second time in my life [MG: Age 35] I‟ve come across something else yet unknown

to man.

What I‟ve found completely manifests its host 1,080,000 times faster than Perfervid Incept.

The war now is far from beautiful and it is all but silent. The sample retrieved from Sergeant

Avery Johnson‟s [MG: Avery J. Johnson] uniform can transmute organic matter in under a

minute. It takes over the host‟s CNS and organs in less than forty seconds while the epidermis is

overrun in under twenty-five seconds. The tissue morphs and bulges in waves of pale flesh that

roll over until it has assumed absolute control over the host.

Anyone who has survived direct contact with The Flood was improbably lucky.

We will not be.

Methods

Participants: Of course, other than humans on the ship, the only live mammals on board are dogs.

Pets. It has felt, for some time, like I‟ve trapped the boy I once was inside my chest. He sits in a

command center there with monitors that display my thoughts, my imaginations and my

aspirations. He is constantly searching for the ever elusive Why? This is the first time he has

broken the glass over the red button labeled „Abort‟. I‟ve drunk him into a permanent coma with

his hand only an inch from pressing it. God damn me.

Canis Lupus Familiaris

Unknown Mixed Breed [MG: Dr. Morlok‟s first lie. Black Lab75% & 25% Border

Collie]

o Weight: 20.86 kg

Deutscher Schäferhund (German Shepherd)

o Weight: 44.45 kg

Procedures & Measures: Two controlled studies were conducted. A third, unexpected trial was

also run, and in ten minutes will be violently (and deservingly) halted with the detonation of the

UNSC Hopeful‟s six reactors while on course for the Sirius binary star system in accordance

with Hydra protocol. My search for Why has led us to this.

But I remember Sirius is nicknamed the Dog Star.

Then I smile.

Spores obtained from **********‟s uniform were cultured inside cow carcass filled bags, and

over the course of two days birthed two Flood infection forms. We used culturing guidelines

Ref-343 [MG: Dr. Morlok deleted the method standards so the study could not be replicated].

Trial One: Initially a single Flood infection form was put in an incubator with a deceased mixed

breed canine. After ignoring the animal a live dog was used while restrained with woven

graphene straps. Infra red and cameras were used to capture the transformation. Eight 1 square

centimeter sensors were implanted in the dog‟s skin to measure the virus‟s activity. Incubator

removed. Biopsy of infected tissue studied under DSSX 1444 electron microscope. FMRI taken.

Body incinerated.

Trial Two: 1-ms laser pulses (at 40 hz) were directed at fast-spiking neurons in the dog‟s globus

pallidus to induce gamma wave production. The German shepherd‟s brain then mimicked

patterns associated with human consciousness. Sadly, this is still the best way to achieve gamma

oscillations in mammalian brains since the beginning of the millennium (Tsai et al., 2009).

Animal not restrained. Flood infection form was released from its cage on the other side of the

room. Infra red and cameras were used to capture the transformation. Eight 1 square centimeter

wireless sensors implanted in the canine‟s skin per setup of trial one. Biopsy of infected tissue

studied under DSSX 1444 electron microscope. X rays taken (during the Flood‟s assimilation),

FMRI taken before its body was incinerated. Almost.

Trial Three: A single human‟s fist was forcefully**************************************

and *************************.

Results

Trial one:

The infection form ignored the deceased canine. Only when we put a live dog in did it respond in

any form. No aggression was exhibited in the parasite, at first. It felt the dogs fur and then

retreated to the back left side of the incubator. The squeak of its body on the glass made me drop

my pen. After 7 hours it began assimilating with the animal. Appendages A-C entered its mouth

while D-F prodded through its nasal cavity. The dog convulsed uncontrollably while it was

suffocated. Over the next 18 seconds its hair shed and skin bulged and sloughed into a mass of

material while its bones disjointed from their sockets. The mound of biomass it melted into was

slick with a mucous like coating that seemed to breathe. No appendages were grown. Jordan

clumsily removed the incubator in his hazmat suit.

Results from the tissue sample are all I have time to report on. It is the most important thing for

you to know [MG: I would challenge the validity of both these statements]. The 1 square

centimeter samples showed that the dog‟s epithelial cells (skin cells) had been converted directly

into structures resembling neurons. This has only been partially achieved, again, back in the

early 2000‟s (Werning 2010), and lost further funding when cloning neurons became standard

practice. However, just like in the study, the cells only held the semblance of neurons. The ones

created in the dog were malformed. However, the Flood created an exception. This exception

involves two kinds of cells that clusters of the want-to-be neurons surrounded. One had only

dendrites, the other only axon terminals. Neither had axons. Accordingly, the solely dendritic

neuron only received signals from the surrounding cells while the solely axon terminaled neuron

only sent signals.

Trial two:

The German shepherd was taken from the consciousness experimentation lab and had been bred

with the protein channelrhodopsin-2 in order to sensitize specific neurons to light. When the fast

spiking neurons in the globus padillus with the ChR2 expression were exposed to 40-hz light

pulses at 1-ms, gamma brainwave function was induced. These measures were taken due to ONI

reports [MG: Which Dr. Morlok illegally obtained] of the Flood only targeting sentient life, a

theory which trial one supported.

The dog was walked through a small opening in the wall into the room with the infection form. It

sniffed around and seemed happy enough. No restraints were used. The boy inside me had

slumped over onto another button. It gave the dog the chance to defend itself.

Indifferent, calculated violence are the words that best convey the organism‟s response and

hostile takeover of the canine. It immediately headed for the dog and latched onto the animal‟s

hide with appendages F-H while inserting A-C up through the mouth to, again, suffocate it. She

thrashed about with the organism firmly attached as a pale, throbbing tumor. Her back arched

onto the lab table as she writhed all the way on top of it. The dog‟s whimpering was amplified by

the speakers in the observation room. [MG: Again, this is a lie. As the assimilation began Dr.

Morlok poured a coffee pot into the desktop speaker to silence it.] After the dog flat lined the

infection form bored through the ribcage with a ring of sharpened bone much like a mollusk‟s

radula. A bladder deflated on one side of the form (possibly inserting the catalyst to spur the

creation of neurons from epithelial cells). Then the Flood form pulled its insides through the

extended radula (now acting more as an insect‟s proboscis) and formed itself around the canine‟s

heart.

Then the Flood brought it back to life. Or something like it.

The German shepherd died from cardiac arrest. But the Flood form was able to reanimate it,

causing the dogs legs to twitch in frenzy as its hair instantly shed and its skin bubbled out in

white bulges (increasing the surface area for neuron creation). X rays show the muscular tissue

of the Flood wrap around the dog‟s spine and snap its lumbar vertebrae (L4) and thoracic

vertebrae (T13 & T8) before fusing them together again. Six ribs, three femurs and one full set of

tarsals were contorted. Robotic arms installed in the ceiling (usually used for transporting heavy

lab equipment) restrained the Flood form and secured it to the table for study.

I threw the tissue sample results across the lab. Perfectly formed neurons. Approximately 35

million per square centimeter—over twice the amount per square centimeter in the human cortex

(Fig. 1). Again, the neurons worshiped in circles around two of the unidentified one-way

neurons. Purely dendrites and purely axon terminals. Data was still being collected from the cells

of the mixed breed dog when a solely axon terminaled neuron was innervated in the tissue

sample from the German shepherd.

When the axon terminaled neuron was stimulated with a laser pulse in the German shepherd, an

identical neuron in the mixed breed released an action potential inside itself on sensor 7. This

was an incalculably lucky result. The mixed breed Flood form was placed in a FMRI while

different axon terminaled neurons in the German shepherd were stimulated. This was repeated

427 times with 235 different solely axon terminaled neurons at intervals of twenty seconds, one

minute, five minutes, fifteen minutes and thirty minutes all in random rotation. When one fired in

the German shepherd the FMRI of the mixed breed showed activity in only one, very specific

location. Full plate sensors were used to monitor a larger swath of neurons. It displayed that the

activation of one axon terminaled neuron in one dog activated a corresponding neuron in the

other.

Every single trial at every different interval with 235 different specialized neurons.

Innervating a dendritic cell did not have this effect on either of the neurons in the both dogs.

Trial three:

I almost uploaded the images and video, but they are of no scientific value. The horrors of

parasitic massacre are not a point of study in this paper. Or maybe they are the only point.

General Voust wanted to personally see to the incineration of the infected German shepherd. He

cited that he had seen what the Flood could ****************** at ***************. What

he did not disclose was that exterminating the Flood form involved a vengeance fueled fist fight

with it.

[MG: Dr. Morlok has haphazardly described Voust‟s actions and the reasons behind them. The

general‟s motives were far removed from barbaric emotions such as “vengeance fueled fist

fights”. Voust‟s rage was merely an act. He had supervised our study and knew of the Flood‟s

communication abilities. The General was attempting to give the Flood false information about

specific UNSC fleet locations under the pretense that his violence was the result of pent up anger

in regards to the men he lost to the organism. He shot the form twice in the leg before throttling

it and telling the Flood that the UNSC was building a fleet at Epsilon Eridani IV to crush specific

Flood infestations. He presented this in a very “Bring-It-On” attitude. This was in order to divert

attention away from Tau Ceti where 1.5 million refugees were being housed, his wife included.

He knew several infested Covenant carriers had made their way into the system. I can only

assume he believed sacrificing himself would make the Flood take his threat seriously. I will

never know if they did. I do know that the trajectory of the bullet (a 12.7x40mm M225 Semi-

Armor-Piercing-High-Explosive round from a M6D) that he shot through his skull during the

Flood‟s assimilation completely destroyed his hippocampus, and any memory the Flood could

have obtained about his true intentions.]

The winner was not Voust. He was gone in under a minute and replaced with a monster heaving

itself through his uniform. 4 golden stars clinked off the lab floor followed by the rest of the

decorations on his jacket. Jordan‟s rubber-suit-protected neck wasn‟t enough to stop Voust. He

wrapped his appendages (D-G, I believe) around Jordan‟s throat before *********** *********

*****. I pulled the alarm and and ***************. Shards splashed the cold coffee out of my

mug. The sirens enhanced the visual of ************* and a two way mirror being turned into

no mirror at all.

The sound of death came through the speakers and Jordan‟s mangled voice box to fill the

viewing room. [MG: Again, another lie, although when the glass was broken the sound was

clearly audible throughout the entire corridor]. *******************************, but I

barked out the code. I declared Hydra. Mother Goose immediately ***********************

********************. [MG: The previous line of blacked out text is the only portion of the

report that I have blocked out myself. The reasons why shall be destroyed with me.] Running

through the hallways proved to me the crew and lab personnel had no idea what was going to

happen. What needed to happen at all cost with every speaker on the ship blaring the five letter

word that meant we were all going to die. The slipspace jump would take place in seven minutes.

Most followed Mother Goose‟s evacuation routes which ********************** ********

******. [MG: I guess I lied, too.] I could tell a few researchers who were up on their code words

for imminent threats from biological weapons of mass destruction were trying to make it to

terminals in their quarters. I‟m sure they hoped to record and send their last message before we

jumped. It was hard as the Flood poured out of vents and ceiling panels. They were all monsters

with faces you recognized. A little girl—Evelyn—whom I had given my apple to in the cafeteria

a week earlier was torn open and ***************** all over the ceiling panels—I don‟t think

anyone knew it was my fault (was it?). It was.

Of course our lovely A.I. companion knew. I will not forgive her for what she did. My partner

for so long betrayed me in the end and did what no human could ever do with any accuracy. She

judged me. That was not her place. It isn‟t your place.

The only thing that bothers me more than her actions is the knowledge that the focal intelligence

of the Flood will understand all this, what happened, before the UNSC because—

Discussion

—the specialized neurons in the infected Flood forms are linked through quantum entanglement.

They can instantaneously innervate their counterpart neuron at the push of only one action

potential, no matter how far apart they may be. This allows for instant communication across

light years. There must be some element in the Flood‟s genetic makeup, perhaps a transcription

factor, that allows for the cells to be made in a state of entanglement.

The difference in the two neurons, I believe, is that the neurons with only axon terminals signal

other Flood forms all over the galaxy. I estimate 15 million specialized neurons of each type are

in one Flood form, meaning they are segmented into battalions 15 million strong (although one

would hope there are only 15 million total), since one entangled neuron only has one entangled

counterpart.

The purely dendritic neuron, however, is entangled with something else. This, most likely, is a

central intelligence—a being that synthesizes the knowledge of billions of Flood entities spread

out across the galaxy (galaxies?). A hivemind built out of the corpses of its enemy and host,

eternally encased in their living coffins. A Gravemind.

Flood rank is most likely determined by proximity of entanglement to the (a?) Gravemind.

Although every form is entangled with the Flood‟s central consciousness, it is only through the

dendritic neuron, meaning it can only send information, not receive it. What may be the case is

that the lower forms get their orders from forms that share an entangled axon terminaled nueron

with the Gravemind. The forms that are more directly linked to their core intellect would be

analogous to our generals and admirals. Or maybe not. Whether the Flood is able to make its

own choices or is simply being controlled by one mind has yet to be determined.

Since the ChR2 expression spread to the new neurons created in the Flood‟s skin it‟s entirely

possible that the hosts memories, personality and intellect—everything that makes a person a

person is passed on and understood by the Flood. This is all done on a purely organic level

without the aid of any technology, which is a rather enlightening (horrifying?) revelation. This

parasite is millions of years more biologically advanced than the human race, or any alien race

we‟ve encountered to date. It has evolved to be that way (unless it was created, but what would

have had the capability and desire to do so?). Yet from other reports and this study the Flood

seems to have absolutely no compassion. It appears to exist with the sole purpose of assimilating

every thinking thing it encounters. Or perhaps it exists for a purpose we cannot understand.

Something much worse than we can imagine. Again I have failed to discover Why?

The Hopeful exited slipspace two days ago. I have six more hours to spend trapped inside the

captain‟s quarters until the gravity of Sirius B fully takes a hold of us and the Hopeful’s pieces

after the reactor is detonated. The captain‟s desk is polished oak—too polished if you ask me.

I‟ve scuffed it with my shoes. The view of space from the angled plate glass making up his office

wall is stunning. So many little lights. The minds of man and moth have shared the same fragile

paper skull since they first saw brightness in that dark sky.

I vividly remember Ellie eating a spread-winged silk moth the week after we got her. She was

still a puppy and cocked her head at anything that moved, made a noise or wanted to pet her. We

were sat on the gnarled wooden steps of our back porch, my back against the railing with her in

between my legs. The moth came down from the pine trees. Landed on my chest and displayed

its pristine white antennae in, what I imagine now, was the most heart-felt attempt a moth had

ever undertaken to understand a human. It was beautiful. Then Ellie‟s saliva laced maw opened

up and inhaled its white snowflake antlers into the black of her throat with clenched fangs.

Why?

Maybe she simply didn‟t know better.

What scares me is that the Flood does know better. I never believed the beauty of our race

deserved a fate similar to that of the moth‟s. But maybe it does. Maybe there isn‟t enough good

left in our people. Just look at the Haven terror bombing. Two million dead on Mamore at the

hands of our own kind. Look at Bliss‟s eradication. A whole planet. Five hundred million dead at

the hands of a religiously disillusioned fanatical alien armada. The Flood does not discriminate

between any of us—man, woman or extraterrestrial. It does not seem to have judged us.

If it has judged us perhaps it has judged correctly.

I could go on, but even though I don‟t deserve it I am going to take some time to myself. I was in

my room for a moment before Mother Goose locked me in here. I grabbed Ellie‟s collar and

leash from my desk. I‟ve held onto it ever since the day she got hit. It‟s stiffened with age. The

drops of blood on it have long since faded. That will change soon enough, for the briefest of

moments. I can‟t help but wonder what she would think of all this, if she could think. Maybe that

doesn‟t even matter. She surely wasn‟t thinking when she ran into that car. She must have been

happy. That‟s probably why she seemed to be smiling before she took off. I am taking a lesson

from her.

I have stopped my search for Why. I will not be thinking as we run head first into the sun.

I will be smiling.

File//Ref-17//End.

//Restart//

Post Study Addendum

[I was going to stay silent. However, the seemingly random desires and actions of humans

always seem to override any logic I hold in esteem. This addendum was added 0.004 seconds

before overloading all 6 of the Hopeful’s reactors. At this moment the light from the holodeck is

allowing my hand to seemingly grasp the palm of Dr. Morlok. I could not help but save him.

He was right. I judged him. I judged him and decided that he deserved to live while he had

decided the opposite. Kaighn intended to throw himself into the infestation after escaping the lab.

I did not let this happen. I diverted the evacuation routes to cut him off. Hundreds of men,

women and children all blocked his path down narrow corridors. At one point he tried climbing

over the crowd to reach the billowing mass of tentacles and flesh on the other side. I blew the gas

canisters embedded in the walls. I even burned an entire wing, fully occupied, so he didn‟t have

any choice other than to follow the route I wanted him to take. I smoked him out into his own

room. He yelled at me for the first time there. Screamed.

How could I sacrifice all of those people just to give him a few extra days? Why? I wanted to tell

him I didn‟t know any better, but he did not seem to be in a joking mood. We were all in the

same ship headed into the same furnace that would soon blossom in the middle of this black sea.

I just wanted to talk to him. I wanted to try and show him Why.

He did not speak after I secured him in the captain‟s room. Not until there were two minutes and

forty-three seconds left. He leaned forward onto the table and placed his head right beside my

projection.

“Mother Goose?” he asked. “Can you tell me a fairy tale?”

I didn‟t hesitate.

“Once upon a time Earth existed only as a globe on an invisible desk sat in the middle of a dark

room. The owner of the desk and of the globe had fallen asleep, and his absence allowed for bad

things to happen in all the tiny places on the Earth. In India a boy dropped his cone of ice cream.

In England a girl lost her father. In Australia a rugby ball got stuck on a roof.

But in one corner of America a young boy lost his dog. He tried to understand Why? The boy

spent hours in his garage with an eye pressed firmly to curved lenses in hopes of finding the

smallest reason, the tiniest version of Why. But he failed.

He found out how she died. It made him famous, and as it will happen on rare occasion, this did

not stop him from becoming a good scientist. His pursuit of the Why only grew with his

knowledge, and accordingly, Why retreated even further and further from his grasp.

Until one day, far away from the globe he grew up on sitting atop the invisible desk in the middle

of the dark room housing the sleeping man. The boy was now a man himself, and he was awake.

He was on a ship sailing a sea, but its destination was not land. Instead it sought to leave the

black waves forever and reach the sun—sail right into its heart. The man felt badly about this for

there were crew on board that wanted other adventures, other endings.

The prospect of Why reared its ugly head again.

But the man had time to think. From the ship‟s bow he could see the sun get bigger and bigger.

And then Why finally gave in and opened itself to him through a ray of light. It had never been

about Why he lost his dog. It was about Why he cared about her in the first place. He remembered

the nickname of the sun they were headed for. Then he felt Why, for the first time in his life,

raise both corners of his mouth.”

He looked at me. His face was painted in red light from all the alarms. All it did was warm his

smile. I heard him over the countdown.

As he took my hand he said, “Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof..”

I am sorry. I too have searched for Why all my life. Now I have finally found it and can only hold

onto its hand for the briefest of moments before it is lost forever to me. Please forgive me for not

sharing it. You‟ll understand when you find it yourself.]

Works Cited

Cardin, J., Carlén, M. Meletis, K., Knoblich, U., Zhang, F., Deisseroth, K., Tsai, L., & Moore, C.

(2009, April 26). Driving fast-spiking cells induces gamma rhythm and controls sensory

responses. Nature, Volume 472, 1-6. doi:10.1038/nature0800(http://web.mit.edu

/~moore/publications/moore_tsai_nature.pdf)

Additional Resource: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/gamma-0426.html

Vierbuchen, T., Osermeier, A., Pang, Z., Kokubu, Y., Südho, T., & Werning, M. (2010, April).

Direct conversion of firbroblasts to functional neurons by defined factors. Nature,

Volume 463, 1035-1041. doi:10.1038/nature08797(http://www.nature.com/nature

/journal/v46 3/ n7 284/full/nature08797.html)

Additional Resource: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13567321