***** Vol.3 Chap.20 The panel presentation *****
After the applause had subsided, Chris continued, “This morning, I arranged two presentations with contrasting viewpoints from Dr. Frank Abdulcizi’s breakthrough work on DNA decoding and Doctor May-Ling Chen’s surprising research in acupuncture.”
Anticipation grew among the audience.
“I know that having them both presenting together should stimulate a lot of synergisms and insights for the whole scientific community.”
Again, there was another round of applause from the audience.
“Thank you. Thank you.”
“What I like to do is first to ask Dr. Abdulcizi to summarize his research results in fifteen minutes, then Doctor Chen to enlighten us with her research for fifteen minutes as well. We will dedicate the rest of the time for all attendees to ask the panelists questions.”
Chris continued, “So, let me present to you Dr. Frank Abdulcizi.”
There was more clapping from the audience following the introduction, as Chris retreated to his seat and Frank stepped up to the podium.
“Chris, thank you very much for such a wonderful introduction.” With a smile, Frank turned to the audience and began.
“Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished colleagues, I thank you for coming today and for your attendance. It is indeed a great honor for me to be here to mingle with you and exchange intellectual knowledge with you at this conference. To me, this is a great honor to be invited to speak before such a renowned audience.”
Frank asked for the first slide.
“First, I want to set the record straight that the research that I am about to report to you was a team effort. I hereby acknowledged my team members, Dr. Margaret Tomash, Dr. JB Smith, and Dr. Mark Hymann. This research could never be accomplished without the dedication, ingenuity, and creativity of my team members.”
A few claps from the audience with the perfunctory acknowledgment.
“I would like to make it clear to you first that what I am about to present to you is my research results and not necessarily my own personal conviction.”
A few eye brows went up.
Frank then traced the events that had happened during the last few months, being extraordinarily meticulous in presenting only the experimental data. He was extremely careful to not overly extrapolating or wildly interpreting the results.
Not knowing the audience, he took the safe approach. He kept reminding himself not to say anything that he may regret later. He spoke briskly and his fifteen minutes were soon up.
“So, in summary, we had seen that there were multiple sequences in the DNA that seemed to be good predictors of violent behavior manifested in the experimental subjects. For this dataset, the team had synthesized a viable model for discriminating the group displaying violent behavior and the group displaying normal behavior.”
“Further, we hypothesized how mutation in the coding from the inherited genes that gave rise to differing behavior in offsprings from the same parents. I want to repeat that these results were only preliminary and should not be taken beyond what was presented. Well, my time is up and I will stop my presentation here. Thank you for your attention.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
A loud applause came from the floor when he strolled back to his seat and paused to shake hands with Chris. A few of the attendees stood up in appreciation. Then more people stood up. Eventually, the entire audience stood up.
There was clapping for a long time until Chris stood up to introduce the second speaker. Chris was clapping his hand as he walked to the podium as well and held up his hands for quite a while before the audience calmed down.
“Thank you, Frank. That was indeed a mind-blowing and thought-provoking presentation. Now, the honor is mine to present our second speaker. She is a prominent medical doctor and the founder of the Tsai-Chen Clinic in Xilon, China. Her work on the mental balance is known to some of us.”
“She is a distinguished doctor and acupuncturist and has been well sought after for lectures in China. She is truly one of those unique individuals that you meet once in a century. Unfortunately, I can only present one Scientist of the Year Award this year. I am certainly going to nominate her to be the recipient of the Scientist of the Year Award for next year.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you Doctor May-Ling Chen.”
Again, more applause came as Chris walked back to his chair. May-Ling stood up in a dignified manner and approached the podium. She bowed to the audience before fiddling with the microphone. She was calm, faced the audience with a smile, and addressed the audience in halting but grammatically perfect English.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is indeed a great honor for me. I want to thank Dr. Abrahamson for asking me to come. Without his generosity and his help and the help of the AAAS Society, I would not be standing here and address such a group of prominent scientists and colleagues.”
“My English language is not good and I hope you all would forgive me. If you cannot understand what I am saying, please stop me.”
She paused slightly.
“After about twenty-four hours of a plane ride from China and many plane changes and having a time difference of twelve hours, the time is past midnight for me. But thanks to two cups of the strong and aromatic American coffee, I stand in front of you right now. Hopefully, the caffeine in the coffee would sustain me for another fifteen minutes of presentation.”
A laugh broke out in the audience.
“If I fall asleep at any time during the talk…”
More laughs came from the audience.
Though her English clearly was not as smooth as Frank’s, but her command of the English language was acceptable considering it is spoken by someone coming from abroad. While there was a distinct Chinese accent in many of the words spoken and occasionally, she used a few wrong words; the audience was so absorbed in her message that no one seemed to care.
“It is indeed a great honor to be given this privilege to speak after such a distinguished colleague, Dr. Abdulcizi. It is certainly interesting to see the genetic connection to violent behavior, although my personal experiences point to a slightly different direction.”
May-Ling then recounted the discovery, although she was always so modest not to take any credit about the discovery. She showed charts and figures about the human body and the meridian lines. The audience was spellbound by the entire presentation.
She took her time to explain the yin and yang theory and how the balance of the yin and yang forces kept the body functioning properly at all times, and that her experiences with patients led her to consider that violent behavior came from an improper balance of the yin and yang forces.
She described how she could restore the balance of forces using acupuncture and showed many cases from her patients justifying her claims.
The audience was mesmerized.
“In summary, I have presented to you a new therapeutic technique for reducing violent tendencies. Throughout the talk, I have tried to explain the procedure and describe what I feel was the reason the technique worked.”
“At our clinic, we are obviously happy about the procedure. However, I want to stress repeatedly that this procedure has only been tested on a small sample of patients. Neither do we know the long-term effects on those treated, nor how applicable the procedure can be for a wider population. However, I am optimistic about the findings, and would like to enlist all your help to fully explore the total potential of this procedure.”
“I am convinced that having access to the yin and yang forces in a person’s body could lead to significant therapeutic values for an entire array of personality and physical disorders. Though I am not sure I fully understand the implications yet. I know much less why it works. I am more than convinced that there is a significant benefit for humanity. Perhaps we can truly eliminate violence from our society. At least that is my aspirations and my goal.”
“Thank you very much for coming and listening to my lecture.”
She bowed to the audience again before walking back to her seat.
No sooner did May-Ling stop her speaking, than a dozen of hands shot up amidst a thunderous applause.
Chris stood up, still clapping his hands, and walked to the podium. He adjusted the microphone and waited till the applause subsided.
“Thank you, Doctor Chen. That was an excellent talk. It was enlightening indeed. On behalf of all the workshop attendants, I want to thank both of our speakers this morning.” Chris turned to Frank and May-Ling and nodded at them.