If we dive into science you need to consider this:
- The human genome is enormous, and roughly 98% of it is non-coding DNA.
- The Comet Virus struck 124 years ago.
- The X-virus was discovered much later, let's say around 50–60 years ago.
- The X-virus sequence is coding DNA because it produces observable physical changes, just like genes that affect eye color or hair color.
- A hypothetical "self-marker" or dietary preference gene would likely be hidden in non-coding DNA.
From a reader's perspective, especially from hindsight, it can feel obvious that scientists should have looked for the marker first. The problem is that:
Such a marker was only a hypothesis. There was no proof it existed.
It would likely be buried in non-coding DNA.
If you don't know what a sequence does, it's difficult to test, verify, or even determine whether it's relevant.
Without evidence that a self-marker exists, researchers would naturally focus on what they can actually observe: the coding sequences.
The self-marker idea also feels more intuitive because the story is actively discussing it. In reality, viruses don't carry a built-in "don't eat me" tag. The concept itself is speculative, so scientists would first need a reason to believe such a mechanism exists before dedicating resources to finding it.
And even if they did isolate a sequence that appeared capable of altering zombie feeding behavior or marking humans as "not food," they'd still need to determine whether it was safe, effective, and practical. That's a massive research project on its own.
Meanwhile, X-virus and X-minus were producing tangible results. From a resource allocation perspective, it would be difficult to justify diverting people and start looking for a needle (marker) in haystack (98% of non-coding or junk DNA). That's partly why Mason's alone works on it, it's treated as a long shot rather a possibility now.
(The more illogical part of the story comes later (caution: spoiler) when Mason discover, produce it like days? after this chapter. But I'm not complaining, I would hate for the story to drag because of this research phase.)
That's all very nice. But I'm not speaking to the complexity of the human genome or the difficulty of coding it. I am saying they want us to believe that for 124 years, none of these great minds had the thought, "Hey, the zombies don't bite each other, maybe that's worth exploring"
They had the wherewithal to make the X-virus, and create superhumans, but at no point in 124 years did anyone wonder about that? ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
Soooo...... you are saying that the most brilliant minds have been studying this virus for years, but it only just now occurred to one of them to wonder why they don't bite each other? When finding a way to stop these zombies from biting humans miiiight be expected to be, I dunno, fairly high up on the list of research goals? And not, like, the very first damn thing they tried to figure out? Sigh. Was enjoying this story up to now (╯°Д °)╯╧╧