Chapter 2427: Sonia (IV)

The female naturalist arrived at the Lingao Natural History Museum at exactly 1 PM. Although the museum was completed, interior decoration and exhibition work was progressing very slowly. There was no shortage of exhibition professionals within the Senate, but mounting exhibitions under such crude conditions wasn't easy for anyone—besides, the Senate was currently in quasi-wartime status. Many Senators were either busy with their own work or away on assignment. A systematic project stopping and starting, it had been delayed until now and was still only half-finished. Opening was nowhere in sight, so they could only make do with simple popular science activities first.

Because it hadn't officially opened, the main entrance was closed. Sonia entered through a side staff entrance. Passing through an internal corridor, she came to the central atrium.

The atrium was the center of the entire Natural History Museum—a full-height open space with a transparent glass-inlaid dome at the top. Originally, space beneath the dome was reserved for a Mosasaurus or Plesiosaur skeleton. The current plan was a gray whale skeleton plus several shark skeletons. Suspended in mid-air in dynamic poses, the visual impact would be sufficiently stunning.

However, at the moment the gray whale skeleton was still in Japan. The Senator responsible for the exhibition had only hung down from the dome several ropes of varying lengths and markers to determine the gray whale skeleton's position. This was to estimate the rough effect and its relationship with surrounding decorations.

At the very center of the atrium was a granite platform. The long-term plan was to place a large carnivorous dinosaur skeleton here—like a Tyrannosaurus or T-Rex. The current plan was an elephant skeleton—if they could get a mammoth skeleton from Siberia, of course that would be even better. If not, an Asian elephant skeleton was still easy to obtain.

Each time Sonia walked through the atrium, she was awed by the Senators' bold and imaginative design. Museum collection and exhibition was not the Senate's invention. Starting from the Renaissance, a craze for museum collection had arisen in Europe. The tyrants of the various Italian states were foremost among them. Soon, kings and emperors had also caught this fashion along with the Age of Exploration. Specimens of exotic plants and animals were very popular; those bizarre deformed fetuses and human specimens were their special favorites. One of Tsar Peter the Great's gains from his tour studying in Western Europe was shipping back a large natural history collection—of course, from the Senators' perspective, his collection was mostly curiosities with very limited scientific content.

When Sonia was in Portugal, she had viewed quite a few small-scale natural history collections. In terms of quantity and variety of collection alone, the Senate's collection wasn't particularly rich. But in breadth and depth, it was obviously much stronger than collections made merely for "curiosity." Besides, most natural history collections were simply displayed; see too many and they became tediously tiresome.

This is what science should look like, Sonia thought as she walked through the atrium. She greatly resented the nobility's curiosity-seeking collection mentality. Unfortunately, "curiosity" pieces most easily gained their favor and thereby obtained substantial patronage. For this, many people didn't hesitate to fake things. She had personally seen a "water monkey" transported from afar, soaked in high-concentration brandy. Although she could tell at a glance this was spliced together from a monkey and some unknown amphibian's webbed feet, she kept quiet against her conscience. Because she herself sometimes had no choice but to forge "discoveries" to obtain patronage.

In the atrium, corridors, exhibition halls... everywhere was piled with renovation materials and packaging boxes of various sizes. The boxes were uniformly labeled "Handle With Care." Some exhibits were wrapped in oilcloth and reed mats, their actual appearance invisible.

Naturalized citizen staff and trainees along the way greeted her. Sonia was a very conspicuous presence in the museum. Not to mention her attention-grabbing exotic appearance—just her title alone, "Level Three Researcher," was enough to make naturalized citizen staff deeply respectful: this foreign girl was already a Level Three Researcher at such a young age!

"How do you do." She smiled and greeted people along the way, walked through the exhibition hall, climbed two flights of marble stairs, and came to the third floor. Most of the third floor area was the non-public research zone. As a "Level Three Researcher," Sonia had an office here.

As the only naturalist among naturalized citizens, it was natural for Sonia to have this treatment. Different from what she imagined, the Senators valued her not just for her beauty but more because Sonia was actually very useful to the Senate—she was a naturalist.

In the modern scientific system, "natural history" no longer existed as an independent discipline. In the 21st-century old timeline where the Senators came from, whether China, America, Venezuela, or Equatorial Guinea, no university or research institution offered natural history. One could even say that by the Senators' grandfathers' time, this discipline had already ceased to exist.

Natural history in modern history was approximately equivalent to the modern collection of zoology, entomology, botany, paleontology, mineralogy, meteorology, astronomy, geography, anthropology, ecology, and so on. Naturalists not only combined the capabilities of botanist, zoologist, geologist, mineralogist, and more in one person, but also possessed rich field survey capabilities and experience. Almost every naturalist was an explorer. The most well-known naturalist in the world was the famous Sir Charles Robert Darwin.

The 19th century was the golden age of natural history. Naturalists were active in every corner of the earth, exploring nature's secrets. However, as science progressed and developed, this discipline gradually disappeared. By the 21st century, classifying animals, plants, and minerals had been completed over a hundred years ago. Natural history was decomposed into many more refined disciplines. Schools wouldn't cultivate them, society didn't need them, so the Senators simply didn't have this ability.

But the Senate, like the 19th-century great powers, desperately needed people to do these things. It was true the Grand Library had various animal, plant, and mineral atlases and general distribution data, but the data couldn't be detailed enough to show exactly which hilltop corner contained what the Senate urgently needed. Such matters still required sending people for on-site surveys and records. This work wasn't too complicated, but if it relied solely on the few Senators from the Remote Survey Department, the entire world's survey work couldn't be completed in fifty or a hundred years. So, having Sonia receive modern academic training, then letting her accumulate relevant survey experience, and then training batches of naturalized citizen survey team members was a reasonable and realistic approach.

Not long after Sonia came to Lin Hanlong's side, she was arranged to "study"—all foreign female slaves had to go, but Sonia's study content was more complex. Besides Chinese, she also had to study under the Senators, systematically learning the various modern branches under "natural history." Sonia swam in the ocean of knowledge, learning hungrily. Even when pregnant and about to give birth, she was still at home gnawing through thick tomes.

Yet Sonia was completely unaware of this. She felt somewhat "flattered" by the treatment she received, thinking her master had exerted his influence. After all, in this era, knowledge was still genuine "wealth," and those who possessed it wouldn't easily impart it to others. Books recording this knowledge were also very rare.

The third floor of the Natural History Museum was very quiet. There was no suspended ceiling installed here. Looking up, you could see the exposed trusses and roof structure panels. Rows of arched glass windows let in large amounts of light, illuminating the entire space extraordinarily brightly. Walking in immediately made one feel energized.

She took out her key and opened the office door bearing her "Level Three Researcher" nameplate and her name. Sonia liked this kind of "treatment." It fully demonstrated she was a person with "status" who was "respected"—she valued this highly.

Her office had a full thirty-plus square meters—larger than many Senators' offices. Such a large office naturally wasn't for placing a single desk. It was also Sonia's workshop. In the center of the room was a huge work table. A microscope specially hand-crafted for her by Lin Hanlong stood on the table. Against the wall were many storage shelves for storing various specimens and materials. Currently the storage shelves were mostly still empty. A set of the Great Song Encyclopedia 1635 Edition, vetted by the Truth Office, printed by the Grand Library Printing Factory, and bound by European craftsmen in calfskin, stood prominently on the shelf.

Three desks were in the room. One was hers; the other two were for "graduate students" from the Remote Survey Department who assisted her. Of course, in the Senate's education system, never mind graduate students—there wasn't even a single college student. Actually, they were employees who graduated from upper elementary school and were assigned to work at the Remote Survey Department, now sent to Sonia's side to study. They counted as apprentices.

These two "apprentices," one male and one female, weren't in the office at the moment—they had both gone to organize specimens.

Specimens and exhibits gathered from various places were numerous. The departments transferring specimens included not only the natural specimen room of Fangcaodi Academy but also the specimen room of the Remote Survey Department and the specimen room of Lingao General Hospital—some early human body specimens had been transferred to the museum by Dr. Shi's order—the Teaching Department's warehouse was nearly full.

These specimens that had filled their respective specimen rooms to the brim, once transferred to the 2,000-square-meter exhibition hall, were just a drop in the bucket. Though few in number, when organizing and transferring specimens, they discovered that many early specimens had problems with decay, insect damage, shrinkage, and breakage due to non-rigorous production procedures, quality issues with chemicals used, plus relatively poor storage conditions. Early insect and animal specimens were especially badly damaged.

The current work of the entire Natural History Museum staff was "organizing specimens": arranging, evaluating, classifying, and registering specimens gathered from various places.

(End of Chapter)