Yang Ping's gaze lingered on the microscope's eyepiece for a long time.
The cell state was indeed not bad, with good adherence, normal refraction, no obvious signs of apoptosis or aging. But he always felt something was off, a sense of discord that couldn't be put into words, like a dish with all ingredients added, yet missing something intangible in taste.
He straightened up and turned to Weber: "Let me see your experiment logbook."
Weber handed over a thick hardcover book, with a label on the cover bearing his name and experiment number. Yang Ping opened it, starting from last week's record of the "beautiful data."
He read slowly, carefully checking each page. Batch numbers of reagents, cell generation, culture conditions, treatment times, detection methods... each entry was meticulously recorded, with handwriting as neat as print.
"The stem cells you used last week, which generation were they?" Yang Ping asked.
"Fourth generation."
"And these three repeats?"
