Forget it, Jake, it's synbio town.

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I decided have Claude write me an outline of a synthetic biology mystery in the style of Chinatown, the Polanski film. I thought it turned out pretty well, so I decided to share it here. Not exactly normal newsletter material, so I’m keeping this paid subscriber only. Suggestions to improve welcome!

Title: "Folded Truths"

Act 1:

• Introduce Sara Chen, a prodigy in quantum-classical hybrid algorithms for protein folding simulations, working at a small biotech startup in San Francisco

• Sara was mentored by Dr. Lydia Zhang, a renowned biochemist who mysteriously vanished five years ago after a string of unexplained deaths in her research team

• Sara's algorithms show promise but are limited by computing power; she discovers anomalies in protein predictions that seem to defy known biophysical laws

• Dr. Ethan Wells, NeuroSyn's charismatic Head of Research, offers a partnership and access to quantum computers

• Sara is reluctant, but her startup is running out of funding

Twist: The night before signing the deal, Sara receives a video call from Dr. Zhang, who appears distressed and warns her about NeuroSyn and "unexplained deaths." Mid-sentence, Zhang's image glitches, morphing into Dr. Wells, who claims it was a deep fake. The next morning, Sara learns her startup's CEO has been found dead under mysterious circumstances.

Act 2:

• Sara joins NeuroSyn's Protein Design Division, working directly under Dr. Wells

• She befriends Alex, a structural biologist using cryo-EM to verify AI predictions

• They discover NeuroSyn is designing proteins with prion-like domains and quantum coherence properties

• Sara notices occasional glitches in the AI system, as if it's trying to communicate

• Dr. Wells dismisses Sara's concerns about the AI glitches and the recent death

• A NeuroSyn researcher working on a related project is found dead, apparently from a rare, aggressive prion disease

Twist: Sara finds Dr. Zhang's old research notes, revealing she had discovered similar anomalies years ago and was investigating a potential link to unexplained deaths. All records of this work have been erased from public databases. Dr. Wells catches Sara accessing these files and warns her about overstepping boundaries.