Achronos

Achronos to the end of times
A science fiction case for Biochemistry
By Héctor Ongay Delhumeau
All four journalists were much exited about visiting the most popular service provided worldwide by The Corporation: the immediate weight reduction. Oscar, Adrian, Gabriela and Deira worked for several days gathering all the international news about it. Thanks to the Teleporter Machine (TM) Otelo(president of The Corporation) was able to move not only complete objects, but also selective molecules from one part to another.

Marco was bored about the assignment that he had been doing for the last weeks. He felt he was just a tourist guide -a history one- that had to remember many passages he rather prefers not to. And the chapter of the immediate weight reduction was no exception.
Marcostarted the story when the journalists were ready to record it.
“Otelo never liked the idea of the immediate weight reduction. For weight reduction he had always supported traditional diets and exercise.
“The idea was born when we were having lunch in a pub in a Middle East country. We were eating stuffed ram, delicious, but fat overloaded. For Otelo it was not a challenge to remove the excessof fat and oil on it. Just a movement of his hands and all the fat was moved to a small bowl on the table.
“A few moments later I had the idea: If Otelo was able to move fat from a dish, he would also be able to remove it from a living being. I conceived the actual big business, the immediate weight reduction. In the regular reduction diets, at the best, the percentage of fat lost is no morethan 50%. With the miracle treatments the patient may even loose as low as 10% of fat. The rest is water, proteins from muscles and minerals from bones. I use to hate those miracle diets[i]. Now, imagine a weight reduction without removing water, without muscle loss, with no exercise, no diets: 100% of fat lost instantly.” Marco’s voice broke down.
“Otelo rejected the idea” said sadly. Marcoimitated Otelo´s voice and gestures trying to cheer himself up. “No baby has been born with 100 kg of weight…. You are what you eat…”
“In the following weeks I mentioned the issue several times. Mainly I tried to convince him that being obese or over weighted was a disease, not something chosen by the patient. In those days he was over weighted, and when I finally mention it, he had a very aggressivereaction. Interestingly… instead of reacting against me, he reacted against himself: He started a very strict exercise program. Because he was able to go to any part of the planet instantly, he combined jogging on beaches, running in deserts, skiing, mountain climbing in the Himalayas (has the Guiness record on being on the top of the Everest), swimming in the middle of the ocean, biking, skatingon frozen lakes and almost any outdoor sport that you may imagine. At least he has been doing two hours of exercise a day since then. He lost 20 kg of fat in a year and gain 10 kg of muscle.
“Otelo stubbornness’ is famous world wide. But in this topic he really was able to win another Guiness record! A few months after the incident of the Middle East pub, I stopped mentioning the idea.
“Twoyears later, we visited Juan Carlos at the hospital. Deira, Oscar, Gabriela Do you remember him? He was in our school and he also was Otelo´s student.”
The journalists said no nodding.
“Anyway, he had a car accident and had been in bed for almost six months after several surgeries” continued Marco. “Of course, he gained several tens of kilograms of weight but also lost almost all muscles in hisbody.
“When we entered into his room, Otelo just stood still, staring. He noticed that Juan Carlos was not able to stand up by himself. He was not strong enough to walk. His doctor said he was Ok related to the bone fractures and physical traumas. But because the massive muscle loss and the weight gain, he had to go through several months of therapy until we would be able to walk again. A...