PNS Interview with Nguyen Minh, PhD

 PNS:  Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.  Rita Trevalyan here with Nguyen Minh, PhD, another member of the PET, the Proserpina Exploration Team on Proserpina, exploring the mysterious ninth planet.  And what is your specialty, sir?

Minh:  Don’t call me sir, I work for a living.  I work with Nin Hao in exobiology.  We have discovered many strange species, but many are also what you would find on Earth.  

PNS:  Could you give a few examples in each category, please?  

Minh:  Oh, yes.  One which is found all over Earth, and is useful for both pharmaceuticals and fiber is hemp, also known as marihuana or cannabis.  It has only recently been legalized on Earth.  The process to. decriminalize and legalize it began in the early 2000s as several states in the US legalized it. The US government was slower to move on it, since many conservatives condemned its use, including the President.  Here it has never been a controlled substance, so when agriculture was resumed after millions of years subsisting in the lava tubes underground,     Farming it was resumed on a large scale.   But Nadyezhka could tell you more about that.

PNS: What are some new species you’ve discovered?

Minh:  There is the Haowazica terminius Bascally it is a like a cross between a bat and a squirrel.  Very good eating, by the way.  I’ve had it served to me in the lava tubes by the natives.

PNS:  Brrr!  Are you sure you didn’t catch a virus from eating it?  Seems to me a deadly virus was going around last century from people eating bats.  

Minh:  No I didn’t. You see, the dishes served with it, a root crop, are effective antivirals.  These people know what they’re doing.  Another very interesting species is the Eranook splazicus, it’s a giant slug. Also very good eating if prepared properly.

PNS:  Are all the species you discovered edible?

Minh:  Most of them.  Those people had to eat something  during the millions of years they were stuck underground.  Sure, they hibernated for a goodly stretch of that time, but there’s a limit to how long you can sleep, you know.  

PNS:  Now we’re getting somewhere.  The natives hibernated for fifty million years?

Minh:  It is more like they were cryogenically frozen, their heart rate all but stopped so they didn’t need oxygen, they didn’t need to breathe.  When they got close a sun again that they were receiving UV light again, they woke up.  Believe me, we are studying how they did this most assiduously so that when we start to leave the solar system to travel to the stars, we will be able to copy the same method they used.  

PNS:  That is most interesting Dr. Nguyen  Thank you for your time.  That’s all for this week.  Stay tuned for another exciting interview with another member of the Proserpina Exploration Team, same bat time, same bat channel.