NANO TATTOO
BY
Joshua Heights
I love the start of a new book, I simply write….. Coming soon , NANO TATTOO
When technology meant for good, falls into devilish hands.. #nanotattoobook
Hayes Margo is a young genius. At thirty three years old he is the professor of chemical engineering at the Nano technology unit at MIT. For the past seven years Hayes and his team have been laboring intensively on a project coded glx9t or better known in the lab as, “NANO TATTOO. Advertron Associates, a small pharmaceutical start up, specializing in the disease of diabetes has contracted and granted the funds for Margo to create Glx9t, which is to become a specialized ink that when mingled with uniquely formulated nanoparticles will be used in tattoos. The objective with this technology is rather to prick ones finger several times daily to monitor glucose levels, a person with type one diabetes could simply get a tattoo with nano ink. The amount of sugar in the blood stream could be continuously monitored. The glucose would be sensed by a device like a wrist watch worn over the tattoo. These nanoparticles contain sensor molecules which react with sodium or glucose, creating “biomarkers”. When exposed to an ultraviolet light, these biomarkers start to shine. The higher the concentration of the biomarkers the stronger the reaction. The ultraviolet light that shines from the underneath of the specially designed wristwatch onto the tattoo calculates the biomarkers then transmits its calculations onto the face of the watch as glucose numbers. So if one needed a reason to get a tattoo and is a diabetic a nano tattoo would be the way to go. But just like any new project that has difficulties Professor Margo has his. The issue at hand is that Hayes knows he is at the threshold of perfecting GLX9T but for the life of him, he cannot complete the last equation of the formula. He has been struggling with last strand of calculus not for the past week or month but the math problem has persisted like a bad tooth for almost a year. Dennis Murphy, CEO and founder of Advertron Associates is about to pull the funding for the project if Margo doesn’t show some promising news, and soon. By pulling the funding though, Dennis will have failed at his dream to help his nine year old daughter who suffers from juvenile diabetes and the thousands of other children suffering too… Giving up was never an option for Murphy or Margo, yet it seems, there is no other choice and project GLX9T will have to be cancelled.
ONE
Night has fallen over the city of Boston as a frigid wind blew and whipped throughout. It was a cold front that came down from Canada bringing heavy snow that fell furiously in large flakes. Just a few cars could be seen crossing the Charles River Bridge as the water below was frozen solid. For it was weather mayhem outside, that is for sure. But on this wintery night Hayes Margo was in his warm windowless office staring deep into a computer screen before him. On the screen was the math equation that has dogged him for a year. Furrowing his eye brows and sipping from a Styrofoam cup of cold coffee, he swallowed slowly. Doing the calculus in his head as he has done so many times before, tonight, he felt a sense of apprehension craw along the back of his neck. In the quietness of his office Hayes whispered the words, “could it be?” as he wrote out the math on graph paper. He looked at the numbers like a hawk zeroing in on its prey, his pulse raced, and his breath was taken away. “There it is” Margo whispered once again, my God, it is, the final link! Margo jotted down the math, once, twice and yet a third time. Each time arriving at the same conclusion. Seven years he muttered, seven long years he repeated, now entering the data frantically into his laptop. Thinking to himself, how in the world could I have missed this? Hayes let out a deep breath, the kind of breath filled with long awaited good news. Certain that he finally solved the math problem Margo decided to share the exciting news with Dennis Murphy. Margo eyed his watch, 11:15 pm. late he thought to himself but not too late, he decided to make the call. The phone on the other end was answered on the third ring with a lively hello. “Hi, Mrs. Murphy said Margo, its professor Hayes, is Dennis available? He is Professor, working late as usual? Yes, as usual Mrs. Murphy, I hope I haven’t woke you. Oh no, not at all professor, we are just watching the news, said Mrs. Murphy. Margo could hear her cover the mouthpiece of the phone and next Dennis Murphy was on the line.
One Should know that Dennis Murphy is a self-made millionare.With a one hundred thousand dollar loan he received from a local bank he was able to purchase a lot of land next to a sports stadium in Philadelphia and turn it into one gigantic parking lot. Charging twenty dollars a car to park in one of the thirty thousand spaces with at least three events every week scheduled, Dennis, in one year was able to pay off his loan and purchase more lots of land close to stadiums around the country. But his really big break came when a NFL owner approached him about selling one of his enormous lots in order to build a football stadium. Dennis Murphy a young husband and a father to be couldn’t say no to the twenty million dollar offer. After his daughter was born and diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, Dennis was hell bent on doing something to ease her suffering. A year into the chronic disease Dennis and his wife Alicia were heartbroken to see what their daughter had endure on a daily basis. Dennis focused on the numerous needle pricks his daughter had to succumb to everyday in order to monitor her glucose level. Several times daily Dennis and his wife pricked their daughter little finger tips for her precious blood. She cried each and every time and her dainty finger tips looked like an overused pin cushion. On night while he was reading an article about type 1 diabetes and that the Nano Technology lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were attempting to formulate a certain kind of ink to be used in tattoos that could possibly monitor sugar levels. So instead of many daily needle pricks the patient could just endure the pain once with a tattoo. The one thing holding back the research was funding. This article intrigued Dennis, and with his daughter in mind and money in hand he started Advertron Associates with the help of leading doctors and researchers. He then approached MIT and the smart professor of Chemical Engineering, one Hayes Margo who was already on the fore front of the break through research. A relationship was made and five years later and fifty million dollars into the project the only thing reached was the reoccurring dead end to the complicated calculus problem, until tonight.
Hello Professor, said Dennis enthusiastically, I hear you are working late as usual. News travels fast I see said Hayes jokingly. It sure does my friend, so, what is on your mind this late snowy evening asked Dennis. A brief second of silence filled the space between the two , and just as Dennis removed the phone from his ear to look at it with a bit of conjecture he could hear the professor talking. Now, with the receiver up to his ear he asked, “could you repeat that Hayes? I SAID, I cracked the code! The code? Said Dennis, THE CODE! Repeated the professor. This time the silence came from Dennis’s end. You there? Asked the professor. You say, you cracked the code? I did say that Dennis. With the news finally reaching Dennis’s brain he said with guarded anticipation, are you sure professor, please, are you absolutely sure? Hayes responded with a resounding YES! , Dennis reached for his wife’s hand as he sat up in his bed and looked, with keenness, at a picture of his daughter on a night stand next to the bed. Are still at the lab professor? I am said Hayes, GOOD! Shot back Dennis, Stay there I am on my way. I thought you would be Dennis, I will put on a fresh pot of coffee.
Joshua Heights 