Botany

Solution

by Brian Shimanuki and Tracey Lin

Answer:
OXYGENETICS

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This is a metapuzzle for the Greenhouse round, with these puzzles and answers:

Make Your Own Metapuzzle
GARAGE SALE
Flora on Fauna
MALACHITE
Behold, a Puzzle
POLICY
In Due Course
SEDATIVES

We will transform these feeders in 3 stages that roughly correspond to transcription, translation, and protein folding to get the final answer.

Transcription (RNA Splicing)

We see 12 images of scissors next to strands of RNA that have been cut. The longer strand has a bigram above the two nucleotides next to the break. These bigrams all uniquely belong to one of the 4 feeders. We want to cut the feeders and take the smaller, non-noted substring (any extra letters are discarded).

BigramMatching feeder with visual breakNumber of nucleotides in smaller strandSubstring
AGgar AGesale3GAR
CYpoli CY2LI
CYpoli CY3OLI
HImalacHI te2TE
LEgaragesa LE2SA
MAMA lachite3LAC
POPO licy3LIC
RAgaRA gesale2GE
TEmalachi TE3CHI
TIseda TIves2DA
TIsedaTI ves2VE
TIsedaTI ves3VES

Translation

We get pairs of substrings that we can combine to make plant names. This is suggested by the title being Botany, that the round has been in a greenhouse, and that we’ve been cutting RNA. Then suggested by the flavor text, we take the scientific names of these plants. In length-order of the scientific name,

OLI+VEOlea europaea
GAR+LICAllium sativum
LI+LACSyringa vulgaris
SA+GESalvia officinalis
DA+TEPhoenix dactylifera
CHI+VESAllium schoenoprasum

At this point, we need to have the “denatured proteins” (strips of paper) to proceed. These can be discovered by unlocking the safe in the Cargo Room. After unlocking the safe and seeing Matt & Emma pick up the proteins, if we proceed back to the greenhouse, we can see that the puzzle page has been updated to include the proteins.

These scientific name lengths match the lengths of the strips, which confirms we are on the right track.

Protein Folding

We then write the letters on the strips and cut the strips out. We note that the strips are ordered by length, and the numbers on the symbols are in numerical order of appearance, so these facts can be safely ignored for the rest of the solution.

The feeder answers overlaid on the paper strips in length order.

The red lines on the strips correspond to canonical origami folds – dashed-dot lines represent mountain folds, and dashed lines represent valley folds. We get the following 6 shapes in the diagrams below. For visual clarity, the blue shaded cells are facing away from us and are not visible; all the numbers are oriented right-side-up (which suggests that this is the correct orientation).

Colored side upWhite side up for posterity
The red strip with OLEA EUROPAEA folded with the red side on top. An E is visible in on the red side. All other parts of the strip are darkened and wouldn't be visible to us.The red strip with OLEA EUROPAEA folded with the white side on top.
The orange strip with ALLIUM SATIVUM folded with the orange side on top. The letters MSATI are visible in on the orange side. All other parts of the strip are darkened and wouldn't be visible to us.The orange strip with ALLIUM SATIVUM folded with the white side on top.
The yellow strip with SYRINGA VULGARIS folded with the yellow side on top. The letters SYGA are visible in on the visible side. All other parts of the strip are darkened and wouldn't be visible to us.The yellow strip with SYRINGA VULGARIS folded with the white side on top.
The green strip with SALVIA OFFICINALIS folded with the green side on top. The letters CS are visible in on the green side. All other parts of the strip are darkened and wouldn't be visible to us.The green strip with SALVIA OFFICINALIS folded with the white side on top.
The blue strip with PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA folded with the blue side on top. The letters OXI are visible in on the blue side. All other parts of the strip are darkened and wouldn't be visible to us.The blue strip with PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA folded with the white side on top.
The purple strip with ALLIUM SCHOENOPRASUM folded with the purple side on top. The letters EN are visible in on the purple side. All other parts of the strip are darkened and wouldn't be visible to us.The purple strip with ALLIUM SCHOENOPRASUM folded with the white side on top.

There are four kinds of symbols:Two layers stacked on each other. The top face of the top layer is highlighted in green.Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the top layer is highlighted in green.Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the bottom layer is highlighted in green.Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the bottom layer is highlighted in green.

These are modeled after default layer symbols in digital art software, which implies that these will help us layer the strips. There are two of each number from 1 to 8 on these symbols, with one being on a green part highlighted on top Two layers stacked on each other. The top face of the top layer is highlighted in green.Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the top layer is highlighted in green. and the other being on a green highlighted on bottom Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the bottom layer is highlighted in green.Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the bottom layer is highlighted in green. .

The red strip with Olea europaea gives us a break in on how to arrange the symbols – the Two layers stacked on each other. The top face of the top layer is highlighted in green. and Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the bottom layer is highlighted in green. labeled with 2s face away from each other. Additionally, the green strip with Salvia officinalis has the Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the top layer is highlighted in green. and Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the bottom layer is highlighted in green. labeled with 7s kissing each other. This implies that symbols with highlights glowing downwards Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the top layer is highlighted in green.Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the bottom layer is highlighted in green. should face away from us, while the symbols with highlights glowing up Two layers stacked on each other. The top face of the top layer is highlighted in green.Two layers stacked on each other. The bottom face of the bottom layer is highlighted in green. should face towards us. This also implies that colored sides should face us as well. Using this, we are able to layer our shapes:

All six strips layered on each other. The colored letters that would be visible to us spell out OXYGEN, ETI, and CS.

Reading the letters that are not covered and facing us, we get the answer OXYGENETICS.