have anything important
at work today?
I hope you're not implying
that any day is unimportant at Cortex Semi.
I was going to come give you
this big speech about how we've been...
friends for a long time and built up trust,
that whole thing.
But how about this instead?
If you ditch work this afternoon and promise
to do the few small things I ask you...
I will in return show you
the most important thing...
that any living organism has ever witnessed.
Well, it looks like mustard to me.
I know, but it's a film. It's a protein...
secreted by a fungus
called Aspergillus Ticor.
He told you that?
No, he knew it was a protein
but didn't know where it came from.
All he really did was just take some pictures
with their equipment.
Guess where we're going.
- Do you know where Will is?
- No, why?
The Ariel meeting
is pushed back till Wednesday.
I thought he was waiting around for it.
Where are you going?
What do they do with engineers
when they turn 40?
- What, Bradshaw?
- Exactly. You know what?
I do know where Will is.
I'll let him know on my way out.
- Okay. Thanks.
- Can you meet me out front?
- You got to drive.
- Okay, here. Take my keys.
Okay, if you can, just pretend
that this is the first time I came in.
And if you would just
tell him exactly what you told me...
- Okay, so what is it?
- Protein build up.
- Okay, can you just tell him?
- Protein build up.
- But what kind?
- Some fungus.
- Some fungus.
- Where did it come from?
- I don't know. You were to take it to the lab.
- Yeah, that's next.
- You were in design, weren't you?
- Yeah.
How did you get over here?
Do you know what they do
with engineers when they turn 40?
They take them out and shoot them.
What the hell, Abe?
You could have just shown me the pictures.
- I want you to believe it.
- Believe what, the protein?
- I believe you.
- Okay, look...
this guy already thinks it's a joke,
so he may be a little defensive.
Really? Why would he think that?
Please.
Aspergillus Ticor.
This is a fungus that's everywhere.
It's in our bed, our skin,
sometimes even our GI tract. Everywhere.
It's basically the reason you don't leave
things in dark, damp, closed-off places.
Thank you.
Do you have that sample I brought?
There it is. Terger. T-E-R-G-E-R.
Okay, when I showed you this,
tell him what you thought.
- You thought it was a joke, right?
- It is a joke.
Right, but how did you know?
Will you show him? Please?
This is how I get protein A
out of Aspergillus Ticor. We sweeten it.
We agitate it. We spin it around.
We sweeten some more.
- Takes about a month.
- To get the same amount I brought in.
To get the same amount I brought in.
So if it's an incubator for fungus,
is that valuable?
- That's not what it is.
- Then what is it?
There's another way to secrete
that much protein. Do it naturally.
But that takes a lot longer.
If it has a little moisture and it's left alone,
it'll start secreting and it'll build up...
- and build up, but it takes a long time.
- How long?
- A long time.
- More than a few days? Then how long?
To get the same amount of protein
that we have...
the amount that I was wiping off
every five days...
and five days later it would accumulate...
he says it would take about five to six years.
I don't want to belittle this guy.
So, I said screw it
and I put my watch in there.
- And?
- I want you to do it.
- Where is it? The box?
- I took it back to the shop.
- Wait, digital or old mechanical?
- Exactly. I did both.
- And what?
- I want you to do it.
We thought
that we were degrading gravity, right?
That we were blocking that information.
I think we're doing more than that.
I think we're blocking more than that.
When you were controlling the feed,
did you notice it was parabolic?
It's important. Parabolas are important.
Here, look at this.
I don't know, Abe.
I'm going to start it up
and let it run for 60 seconds...