"Nancy Kress - Sex and Violence" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

SEX AND VIOLENCE
by Nancy Kress

Nancy Kress shows us why we can’t live without...

****

“The central problem of evolution is this,” Dr. Shearing said, chalk
poised before the blackboard. Bio 101 slouched, sprawled, and yawned in
its collective seats. “Natural selection works fine once you have organisms
to select from. But how did that first self-replicating organism get itself
assembled? In fifty years of lab experiments—fifty years!—we haven’t
succeeding in infusing life into any ‘primordial-soup’ chemicals. Let alone in
joining the minimum thirty-two amino acids needed for a self-replicating
proto-cell.” He paused dramatically. “So where did that first
natural-selection candidate come from? Where?”

Ordered on eBay, Jim Dunn text-messaged to Emily McLean across
the aisle. She giggled.

“Of course,” Dr. Shearing continued, “There’s always the theory that
life on Earth was seeded from the stars, by a cloud of drifting spores called
panspermia—”

Canned sperm, ya? Emily texted, giggling harder.

“—and that we descendents of alien spores in fact are, after three
and a half billion years of evolution, aliens to Earth.”

HE’S pretty alien, Jim texted. Wanna get coffee?

****

“They test how?” [Mghzl] [said] to [his] [lab assistant].

“Matter-based, which is strange enough, but ... look.” The other
displayed all the relevant data on the [not translatable] of a [also not
translatable].

“Sugar-phosphate double helix and amino acid pairs? You’re sure?”

The [lab assistant] [nodded]. The fabric of space-time rippled slightly.
 “When?”

“Forty point sixteen [time units] ago. It could have been an accidental
escape or...”

“Or a deliberate release,” [Mghzl] [said] bitterly. “I suspect ... you
know what I suspect. What have they evolved into?”