Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Beyond the first trimester.


Adam II is repulsive and vile. Over a month ago, I stopped adding new material to Adam II because of the smell. It's really astonishing how such a small volume of a substance (less than 35 ml) can have such a pungent, overpowering odor. I always hold my breath before I remove the cover from the jar but that isn't enough. Even after I replace the cover, the smell lingers in the air and has already filled a significant portion of the room. The smell is one of rot and decay and is extremely unpleasant, to say the least. When compared with Adam, the strength and foulness of the odor becomes even more curious. Adam has a smell, but it isn't even 1% as heinous as Adam II's and isn't powerful at all. In order to smell Adam, one would have to place their nose practically in the container. There are many factors that can be attributed to this difference, I just don't know which one is having the greatest affect. Adam's container is ventilated, Adam II's is not. Adam is comprised of substances that are closer to being alive or "fresh" than what I've put into Adam II. I suppose that in order to really figure out what's causing the smell, I'd have to create two more specimens; one made up of blood and semen kept in a sealed container and one made up of bacteria-laden saliva in a ventilated container. While I do think that this would be worthwhile, currently, I haven't got the necessary materials to house all of these specimens, so I'll make their creation my next priority.
For the last couple of months I've more or less just let Adam and his repugnant counterpart take care of themselves. Not much has changed about either of them and I don't know how to interpret this anymore. It doesn't require any effort from me to keep the project going, so I don't think I'll ever really be able to say when a conclusion has been reached. A lack of changes may be indicative of the end of the experiment or it could just as easily be one step in a process that is leading up to something conclusive. As I've said before, the time line for something like this is unknown.
I've been conducting a similar but unrelated experiment alongside this one. I won't go into details because they aren't necessary, I just wanted to mention this experiment because of what it could tell me about Adam and Adam II. I've been following the progress of various substances in a sealed jar kept in the dark for less than a month and mold has already taken the surface over completely. I'm not sure if I can attribute this growth to the composure of the substance or the substance's exposure to/deprivation of light. In addition to the sealed and unsealed versions of Adam and Adam II, I'll need to recreate the contents of each specimen and place them in the dark to see how that affects them. When I get the necessary materials and feel that the original subjects of this experiment have stopped making progress, I'll start introducing new specimens to the project, to lend it a bit more balance and thoroughness to the whole thing. In the meantime, I'm just going to let things continue as they have been, whether or not any immediately visible results are being yielded. With any luck, my patience will be rewarded.