In 1862, they managed to gather everything necessary for this endeavor - the choice fell on a certain chimpanzee. This was based primarily on the fact that adult chimpanzees weigh similarly to humans and that pregnancy lasts only slightly shorter than in humans. Unfortunately, preparations were rushed due to Sidone's health. However, they also managed to prepare an artificial incubator and a cesarean section procedure - this was dictated by the fear that the child would be born prematurely for a human and the fact that a human newborn is significantly heavier than a chimpanzee's. Sidone and Willem even bought a cow so they could feed the child milk.

From what I understood, many other factors influenced the child's development, but Silvana directed me to the notes if I wanted to know more technical details - this knowledge is rather beyond my comprehension, so I took it all on faith. I know there were many parallel studies, medications administered, and developmental monitoring. Finally, the day came when labor began. It was easy to predict, and indeed it happened, that the birth couldn't take place naturally. The baby was born alive, but with green - tinged skin. The chimpanzee, however, died.

Silvana's later years were similar to those of all early children – she developed normally, experienced her childhood stages, and if it weren't for her skin color, there would be no sign of her having been born unnaturally.

Willem and Sidone later attempted to repeat this process by bringing Willem's "son" into the world, but the process was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, new life entered Sidone – Willem's earlier fears that Sidone wouldn't have time to see her "daughter" proved unfounded – Sidone managed to see Silvana become a teenager before she died. As it turned out, Sidone and Silvana were very similar – Silvana showed me a picture of her mother. To my surprise, what I had previously found unnatural about her face (apart from the color, of course) wasn't quite as obvious on Sidone, but there was no denying it was the same blood. Or maybe I just got used to?

It was getting late again, so that was the end of the story, and I'm goint to sleep.

From a modern perspective, everything that can be read here sounds decidedly fantasy. However, I decided to do some research to find out if it makes any sense at all. And it turns out it does...

Firstly, the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) does indeed belong to a species that weighs 20-50 kg and reaches a height of over 90 cm, with a gestation period of 220-245 days (according to Wikipedia). As far as I understand, pregnancy is a very delicate process, and from a biological perspective, the chance that all the hormones are in balance and that the immune system will tolerate it is very unlikely (even ChatGPT is very skeptical about this), but the diaries unfortunately don't go into detail about the process. As for inducing cell division in stem cells (because I assume such were collected), it's no longer completely impossible, and it is actually being done in laboratory conditions today. When it comes to cloning organisms, the current process involves taking an ordinary cell from a donor, such as a skin cell, and isolating its nucleus containing DNA. An egg cell is then taken from another individual and its own nucleus is removed. The donor's nucleus is then inserted into the prepared egg. The cell is then stimulated with an electrical or chemical impulse to begin dividing like a fertilized embryo. Once the embryo reaches the appropriate stage of development, it is placed in the uterus of a surrogate mother. If development proceeds correctly, an organism is born with nearly identical genetic material to the donor cell.

There are two major discrepancies here: the entire cell was taken, not the DNA transferred to the egg, and a foreign organism was used as a "host." I try to remain skeptical about these reports, but somewhere in the back of my mind I hear, "improbable, but possible."