Archive for the 'biomimicry' Category
Traveling Sales Ants & Swarming Robots
Author: Nina Munteanu18.08.2008
“Swarm intelligence” is a term used to describe the self-organized collective behavior of social insects. For instance, one ant following the trail of another eventually provides the colony the shortest route among the countless possible paths to a food source. In an article in Scientific American, Eric Bonabeau and Guy Théraulaz report on how computer scientists use these social insects as models to solve complex problems. The foraging of ants, for instance, has led to a novel method for rerouting network traffic in busy telecommunic
ations systems. The cooperative interaction of ants working to build their nests led to more efficient control algorithms for groups of robots. The way insects cluster their colony’s dead and sort their larvae can help analyze banking data. And lastly, the division of labor among honey bees could help streamline assembly lines in factories. Shades of biomimicry (see my last post) me thinks. Don’t you?
ations systems. The cooperative interaction of ants working to build their nests led to more efficient control algorithms for groups of robots. The way insects cluster their colony’s dead and sort their larvae can help analyze banking data. And lastly, the division of labor among honey bees could help streamline assembly lines in factories. Shades of biomimicry (see my last post) me thinks. Don’t you?
Traveling Sales Ants: The ant highways we see in nature (and some people’s kitchens) are created by ants depositing pheromone (a chemical attractant) for other ants to follow. The first ants to return to the nest from the food s
ource are those that have taken the shortest path, and, because this route is the first one to be doubly marked with pheromone, it becomes the main route. Researchers used artificial ants that deposited a pheromone that would eventually decay (favoring shorter paths) to solve the traveling salesman problem: devise the most expeditious route by which to visit a given number of cities.
Swarming Robots: “Pheromone logic” can allow groups of tiny robots to navigate complex environments through “swarm intelligence”. For instance, tiny robots that mimic ants leave traces of “pheromone” light behind as they explore a network. The robots can detect and are attracted to light traces left by the other robots. Over time, the most popular path between start and goal becomes the most brightly lit. In another example, robots mimic weaver ants that cling to one another to form a living structure and allow the self-assembled colony to perform tasks that individual robots could not perform.
Recommended Reading:
Eric Bonabeau, Marco Dorigo and Guy Theraulaz. Swarm Intelligance: From Natural to Artificial Systems. Oxford University Press. 1999.
S. Camazine et al. Self-Organization in Biological Systems. Princeton University Press. 2001.
Erol Sahin, ed. William M. Spears and Alan F.T. Winfield. Swarm Robotics. Springer. 2007.
read users' comments (2)Biomimicry: Nature as model, measure and mentor
Author: Nina Munteanu15.08.2008
Several years ago, I picked up a book called Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus. Biomimicry was a term I’d not heard of before and I was intrigued. Benyus invented the term to describe a new discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. A nature writer and champion of nature-inspired innovation, Benyus defines the quest of biomimicry as “the conscious emulation of life’s genius. Innovation inspired by nature.” Examples include:
- energy efficient buildings inspired by the passive cooling of termite mounds
- non-toxic fabric finishes inspired by water-repellant lotus plants
- durable and resistant materials based on spider silk
- biomimetic robot designs based on animal and insect anatomy
Sean Kennedy provides a good summary disc
ussion and examples of biomimicry and biomimetics in his article in the Science Creative Quarterly. I discussed the use of biomimicry as an alternative to genetically engineered foods in a previous post of mine.
ussion and examples of biomimicry and biomimetics in his article in the Science Creative Quarterly. I discussed the use of biomimicry as an alternative to genetically engineered foods in a previous post of mine.
I later had the chance to meet Janine in Seattle, Washington and we had a wonderful exchange of innovative ideas. Janine has since founded the not-for-profit Biomimicry Institute, an organization devoted to promoting the transfer of ideas inspired by Nature to the design of our world, for a more sustainable, healthier planet. The mission of the Biomimicry Institute is to nurture and grow a global community of people who are learning from, emulating, and conserving life’s genius to create a healthier, more sustainable planet.
The site even provides some innovative solutions to climate change. They are hosting a workshop this coming October that sounds promising. Here’s what they say about the workshop, held in the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Rafael, California:
Biomimicry is based on the premise that nature has done everything human beings want to do, but without destroying the biosphere o
r mortgaging our future. The emerging science of Biomimicry, “innovation inspired by nature,” may well be the single most important field of science capable of actually solving problems on the scale of climate change, while making the successful transition to a truly sustainable civilization. Its rapid adoption and advancement are imperative over the next decade. This landmark one-day intensive reveals the leading edge of biomimetic solutions to climate change, modeled on nature’s operating instructions. It’s designed for action-oriented professionals from the fields of business, finance and investment, science, technology, public policy, education, media and civil society.
r mortgaging our future. The emerging science of Biomimicry, “innovation inspired by nature,” may well be the single most important field of science capable of actually solving problems on the scale of climate change, while making the successful transition to a truly sustainable civilization. Its rapid adoption and advancement are imperative over the next decade. This landmark one-day intensive reveals the leading edge of biomimetic solutions to climate change, modeled on nature’s operating instructions. It’s designed for action-oriented professionals from the fields of business, finance and investment, science, technology, public policy, education, media and civil society.
Janine also founded the Biomimicry Guild in 1998. The Guild is an innovation consultancy that has been helping companies and communities find, vet, understand and emulate life’s time-tested strategies. The guild helps innovators design sustainable products and processes that create conditions conducive to all life through the emulation of 3.8 billion years of well-adapted technology.
The innovation consultancy is the Biomimicry Guild http://www.biomimicryguild.com/
Biography:
Janine Benyus is a graduate of Rutgers University, New Jersey, with degrees in Fores
try and Writing. She has worked as a backpacking guide and as a “translator” of sciencespeak at several research labs. She now writes science books, teaches interpretive writing, lectures at the University of Montana, and works towards restoring and protecting wild lands. An educator at heart, she believes that the better people understand the genius of the natural world, the more they will want to protect it. She lectures internationally to public and private audiences on biomimicry and other science topics, exposing audiences as diverse as high school and university students, Fortune 500 businesses, municipalities small and large, and myriad conferences and organizations around the world, including in Europe, Asia, and South America.
try and Writing. She has worked as a backpacking guide and as a “translator” of sciencespeak at several research labs. She now writes science books, teaches interpretive writing, lectures at the University of Montana, and works towards restoring and protecting wild lands. An educator at heart, she believes that the better people understand the genius of the natural world, the more they will want to protect it. She lectures internationally to public and private audiences on biomimicry and other science topics, exposing audiences as diverse as high school and university students, Fortune 500 businesses, municipalities small and large, and myriad conferences and organizations around the world, including in Europe, Asia, and South America.
Cool Reading:
Benyus, Janine M. Biomimicry : Innovation Inspired by Nature. Morrow, New York (1997).
Centre for Biomimetics (website). School of Construction Management and Engineering.The University of Reading, Whiteknights, England. (2003).
Buckminster Fuller Institute (website). Biomimicry. Sebastopol, CA. (2003). http://www.bfi.org/
Demont, E. (Personal communication). Biology Professor, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS. (2003).
Vogel, Steven. Comparative Biomechanics : Life’s Physical World. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. (2003).
Gosline J. M., Guerette P. A., Ortlepp C. S. & Savage K. N. The Mechanical Design of Spider Silks: From Fibroin Sequence to Mechanical Function. The Journal of Experimental Biology 202, 3295-3303 (1999)
Atkins, E. Silk’s secrets. Nature (news and views). (424). 28 Aug 2003. p 1010.
Lazaris A, Arcidiacono S, Yue H, Jiang-Feng Z, Duguay F, Chretien N, Welsh EA, Soares JW, Karatzas CN. Spider Silk Fibers Spun from Soluble Recombinant Silk Produced in Mammalian Cells. Science 295, 472-476 (2002).
Clark JE, Cham JG, Bailey SA, Froehlich EM, Nahata PK, Full RJ, Cutkosky MR. Biomimetic Design and Fabrication of a Hexapedal Running Robot. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. (2001).Hoversten, P (website). Animal-Like Robots Could Explore Planets. Washington Bureau Chief, Spacenews. Springfield, VA. (2000). http://www.space.com/
Centre for Biomimetics (website). School of Construction Management and Engineering.The University of Reading, Whiteknights, England. (2003).
Buckminster Fuller Institute (website). Biomimicry. Sebastopol, CA. (2003). http://www.bfi.org/
Demont, E. (Personal communication). Biology Professor, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS. (2003).
Vogel, Steven. Comparative Biomechanics : Life’s Physical World. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. (2003).
Gosline J. M., Guerette P. A., Ortlepp C. S. & Savage K. N. The Mechanical Design of Spider Silks: From Fibroin Sequence to Mechanical Function. The Journal of Experimental Biology 202, 3295-3303 (1999)
Atkins, E. Silk’s secrets. Nature (news and views). (424). 28 Aug 2003. p 1010.
Lazaris A, Arcidiacono S, Yue H, Jiang-Feng Z, Duguay F, Chretien N, Welsh EA, Soares JW, Karatzas CN. Spider Silk Fibers Spun from Soluble Recombinant Silk Produced in Mammalian Cells. Science 295, 472-476 (2002).
Clark JE, Cham JG, Bailey SA, Froehlich EM, Nahata PK, Full RJ, Cutkosky MR. Biomimetic Design and Fabrication of a Hexapedal Running Robot. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. (2001).Hoversten, P (website). Animal-Like Robots Could Explore Planets. Washington Bureau Chief, Spacenews. Springfield, VA. (2000). http://www.space.com/
Biomimicry: Nature’s Alternative to Genetically Engineered Foods
Author: Nina Munteanu26.06.2007
While developers of genetically engineered foods (GEF) strive to produce hardier and higher-yielding plants, ecologists throughout the world eye transgenics skeptically. They fear that these genetically altered plants, may escape into the wild and displace native plants with unforeseen and potentially devastating results. Dr. Wes Jackson, director of the Land Institute in Kansas, a non-profit research facility devoted to alternative agricultural practices, warns that, if misused, biotechnology may lead to the human-induced degradation of the genomes of plant species. “What is being more or less ignored” in the rush to biotechnology, he said in an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, “is that some of the same principles and processes that govern an ecosystem, like a forest or a prairie, also operate with genomes. The genome is a miniature ecosystem.”1 Thinking along the same lines, Jane Rissler of the Union of Concerned Scientists of America suggested that transgenic science practices may release a seemingly harmless gene into our food supply with life-threatening consequences.
Growing knowledge of potential risks to ecosystem and human health is prompting many to insist that GEFs be identified and segregated so that consumers can make a choice for or against them. Which brings us to the obvious question: what alternative to the use of GEFs will we find to feed our ever-growing populations? Rissler advocates an alternative vision for agriculture, one based on nature’s own balance, which she calls “sustainable agriculture” or biomimicry.
Janine Benyus, nature writer and champion of nature-inspired innovation, defines the quest of biomimicry as “the conscious emulation of life’s genius. Innovation inspired by nature.”2 In her revolutionary book of the same name, Benyus describes how maverick scientists at the Land Institute are remaking agriculture using self-sufficient crops able to “live amiably with their fieldmates, stay in sync with their surroundings, build soil beneath them and handle pests with aplomb.”3 Using nature as a standard, rather than something to be subdued or ignored, the Land Institute is developing self-fertilizing and pest-resistant farms modeled on natural ecosystems. Their heuristic research represents an ecology-based approach to food production which contrasts with the organism-based approach of GEFs. According to Jackson, biomimicry provides a healthy alternative to the promotion of genetically altered plants more resistant to pesticides, because biomimicry bypasses the use of chemicals altogether.
According to the Institute, “ecosystems self-regulate, accumulate ‘ecological capital’ and are 
largely resilient to most perturbations.” According to Jackson, many problems faced by the agriculture industry today stem from replacing natural systems with totally alien systems, and from waging war on rather than allying ourselves with natural processes. He suggests that this has resulted in a steady loss of ecological capital (the erosion and salting of soils, the steady domesticating and weakening of our crops).
largely resilient to most perturbations.” According to Jackson, many problems faced by the agriculture industry today stem from replacing natural systems with totally alien systems, and from waging war on rather than allying ourselves with natural processes. He suggests that this has resulted in a steady loss of ecological capital (the erosion and salting of soils, the steady domesticating and weakening of our crops).The mission of the Land Institute is to “honor natural ecosystems and mimic them.” The Land Institute argues that “the tendency of all natural ecosystems is to increase their ecological wealth. For instance, all prairie, left alone, recycles materials, sponsors its own fertility, runs on contemporary sunlight, and increases biodiversity. Agricultural systems tend otherwise. They erode and degrade ecological capital as they provide for human needs.”4
The premise behind “natural systems agriculture” is a “polyculture of herbaceous perennials, which would run on sunlight, preserve soil, maintain biological diversity, yield adequately, and not rely on harmful synthetic chemicals for fertility or pest management.”5 Polycultures of perennial indigenous plants would incorporate the dynamic properties of natural succession. Working with four species (Illinois bundleflower, a legume; mammoth wild rye, a cool-season grass; eastern gammagrass, a warm-season grass related to corn; and Maximilian sunflower) the Land Institute’s research and development in biomimicry is finding answers to four basic agronomic questions:
Question 1: Can a perennial grain yield as well as an annual grain? Annuals are traditionally used for their high productive capacity and edible yield. Perennials contain extensive root systems which more readily soak up and contain rainwater. Self-fertilizing and self-weeding, perennials are generally more hardy than the annuals typically grown in monoculture in traditional agricultural practices today. But can perennials produce as much seed as an annual crop? The Land Institute is showing yields for perennial grasses that range from 1,500 kg/ha to 2000 kg/ha (Illinois bundleflower) in an area where benchmark yield for Kansas winter wheat is 1960 kg/ha. Each of the four groups looked at have palatable qualities. Gamagrass, for instance, contains a high-protein, large seed (27% to 30% protein and 7% fat), with baking properties similar to those of cornmeal. Hawkins, Lovins and Lovins in their book, Natural Capitalism, claim that a “replacement of annual grains with perennial cereals that do not require annual tilling and replanting could eliminate up to half the soil erosion in the United States, saving nearly $20 billion worth of U.S. soil and $9 billion worth of fuel for farm equipment every year.”6
Question 2: Can a perennial polyculture overyield? Successful use of polycultures (instead of monocultures, traditionally used to provide high yields and uniform maturation time), avoids the “all or nothing” effect of crops of one variety and one stage at the mercy of the vicissitudes of nature in the form of droughts, floods, pests, hail and eroding soils. Polycultures, by virtue of their diversity and multiple stages in succession, are far more hardy against pests and able to withstand what nature deals out. And, perhaps, of far more import, polycultures alone are ecologically sustainable. But can polyculture yields stay even with or actually overyield those of monocultures? Overyielding is common in traditional polyculture systems of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. “Our biological research has shown the feasibility of a mixed perennial grain agriculture,” says Jackson. Experiments performed by the Land Institute support the persistence of overyielding in polycultures because of the synergistic and communal opportunities afforded by mixed crops, rather than the competition of monocultures.
Question 3: Can a perennial polyculture sponsor its own nitrogen fertility? The Land Institute and other researchers throughout North America provide indirect evidence of the benefit that a leguminous grain provides to companion species. In experiments with a leguminous grain (Illinois bundleflower), they showed that the legume compensated for low soil nitrogen without lowering its growth or seed yield. Within 3 to 5 years after establishment, these crops increased soil nitrate over plots containing only grasses.
Question 4: Can perennial polycultures defend themselves against insects, pests and weeds? 
Because most agricultural weeds are adapted to disturbed habitats, and can often outcompete the non-native crops for soil water and nutrients, they become a chronic problem where soils are repeatedly tilled. The Land Institute and other researchers have found that perennial grain polycultures compete well against weeds because of their permanent canopy, deep and extensive root systems and vigorous regrowth in the spring. Intercropping of polycultures combines the weed-suppressing effects of different crops, by intercepting more light, water, and nutrients over monocultures, thus eliminating the need for herbicide application. Hawkin, Lovins and Lovins describe how Japanese farmers can efficiently hand-sow and harvest their polycultures, “because an elegantly conceived sequence of plantings provides the weed control, composting, and other services automatically”.7
Because most agricultural weeds are adapted to disturbed habitats, and can often outcompete the non-native crops for soil water and nutrients, they become a chronic problem where soils are repeatedly tilled. The Land Institute and other researchers have found that perennial grain polycultures compete well against weeds because of their permanent canopy, deep and extensive root systems and vigorous regrowth in the spring. Intercropping of polycultures combines the weed-suppressing effects of different crops, by intercepting more light, water, and nutrients over monocultures, thus eliminating the need for herbicide application. Hawkin, Lovins and Lovins describe how Japanese farmers can efficiently hand-sow and harvest their polycultures, “because an elegantly conceived sequence of plantings provides the weed control, composting, and other services automatically”.7
When it comes to pests, the effects of perennial polyculture are not so clear. Although researchers have demonstrated that some polycultures are less susceptible to pests in what is known as “associational resistance”, they also found that, once established in a perennial system, pests suffer less soil disturbance and tend to prolong.
In the final analysis, Jackson submitted that, “We don’t need one more breakthrough in agriculture. We need to stare hard at (our) fields . . . then reach into the vast literature in evolutionary biology and ecology to learn the rules and laws at work on the land before we got here, and out of this knowledge, put together a new synthesis, a truly new paradigm for agriculture.”
References:
1 Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle of Higher Eduction, February 18, 2000, Salina, Kansas.
2,3 Janine Benyus, Biomimicry, Quill William Morrow, New York, 1997, 308pg.
4, 5 The Land Institute Web Site: www.LandInstitute.org
6, 7 Paul Hawkin, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1999, 396pg.
Julia’s Gift by Nina Munteanu
Author: Nina Munteanu20.06.2007
In keeping with thoughts on endosymbiosis, autopoiesis and other wonderful biological words, here’s a story of mine that speaks to them…Hope you enjoy it…
Julia’s Gift
I inhale deeply to savor the freshness of the air and raise my face to the bright sun bathing in an azure sky. I begin to climb the stairs, avoiding the thousands of people watching me. I falter and nearly stumble as my thoughts sink like a stone in water to Julia and what she did: to that cursed day twenty-nine years ago when her actions determined who lived and who died and to the day much later when she ended the curse she’d placed on herself as a result.
I inhale deeply to savor the freshness of the air and raise my face to the bright sun bathing in an azure sky. I begin to climb the stairs, avoiding the thousands of people watching me. I falter and nearly stumble as my thoughts sink like a stone in water to Julia and what she did: to that cursed day twenty-nine years ago when her actions determined who lived and who died and to the day much later when she ended the curse she’d placed on herself as a result.
Why did she do any of it? Maybe it was because she was the middle child in our family. Psychologists like to say that the middle child acts like an immobile bridge between roles of leadership and childish irresponsibility. Best able to see both sides of an argument, they usually make good diplomats but falter when faced with spontaneous decisions. Like a fish out of water forced to breathe air, Julia gulped in leadership and action against her nature . . . and destroyed herself.
How different the course of events might have been if she hadn’t acted so boldly that spring day twenty-nine years ago. Would I be here, walking up these steps now? Would Simon have survived? Would Julia still have jumped in front of the tube-jet seventeen years ago? Or would we all have died along with our parents that spring day?
~~~~
The blood-red dawn promised a warm spring day. By mid-morning the smell of Montreal had dissipated and the sun felt like a heat lamp on my face as I stepped outside the farmhouse, scrambling after my older brother and sister. They were both tall and long of stride, wearing functional bows and arrows slung over their warrior-like shoulders, while I trotted behind like their pet dog. I didn’t mind. I was only ten years old and Simon and Julia were my heroes. They took me on forbidden adventures in the forest. Our parents didn’t allow us outside the farm property because of the threat of stray revolutionaries, but Simon and Julia flagrantly disobeyed them. It probably started on a dare that escalated out of hand. It was as much that dare as anything else that ended up saving one life, sacrificing another and damning the third.
The blood-red dawn promised a warm spring day. By mid-morning the smell of Montreal had dissipated and the sun felt like a heat lamp on my face as I stepped outside the farmhouse, scrambling after my older brother and sister. They were both tall and long of stride, wearing functional bows and arrows slung over their warrior-like shoulders, while I trotted behind like their pet dog. I didn’t mind. I was only ten years old and Simon and Julia were my heroes. They took me on forbidden adventures in the forest. Our parents didn’t allow us outside the farm property because of the threat of stray revolutionaries, but Simon and Julia flagrantly disobeyed them. It probably started on a dare that escalated out of hand. It was as much that dare as anything else that ended up saving one life, sacrificing another and damning the third. We often spent the better part of the day in the forest and fields beyond the farm property. And it was only Simon, who usually made the decision in the first place to stay all day, who had the presence of mind to bring along food, which he seldom shared. During our journey Simon would usually throw a glance back once or twice to make sure I was still keeping up and rebuke my snail’s pace: “Hey dreamer, hurry up or we’ll leave you behind!” Julia would snap at him in my defense: “Claire’s only ten, you idiot! So slow down for the runt!” They would always argue. “Well, you slow down too, then!” he’d shout back. “I slowed down for you already, slug!” she’d rejoin. On it would go as they shoved each other until I caught up to them. They were less than a year apart and I think Julia resented Simon being the eldest and the one who made all the decisions. She wanted to make them but she never did, so she always disagreed with his.
The day started pretty much like any other day. Simon and Julia were arguing as usual by the time we reached the forest. They’d overheard a discussion between Mom and Tante Lise about the revolution. We moved to the country last summer to get away from the fighting in Montreal. Mom and Dad lost their jobs because of the Gaian revolution. The company they worked for, BioGen Technologies, went up in smoke along with the latest flame bombings and Mom got scared that the Gaians would come after the survivors, mainly Dad, who was one of the head honchos there. So we packed up and came here to my Oncle Pierre’s and Tante Lise’s small dairy farm in the Eastern Townships, where the air smelled clean — well, cleaner than the cities, anyway.
Mom and Dad met at BioGen in Montreal. She was a junior microbiologist in “functional genomics” with unorthodox ideas and he was one of their chief scientists in nano-technology and transgenic research. BioGen was supposed to save the world but then one of Dad’s “creations” got away from them and crashed the world’s wheat crop.
“Tante Lise shouldn’t call Dad Frankenstein,” Julia grumbled. “He isn’t a monster.”
“It’s ‘cause he made monsters, stupid,” Simon snorted. “Frankenstein’s the name of the mad scientist, not the clone monsters he made.”
“He’s not a mad scientist,” she defended. “And they’re not monsters!”
“The Gaians say they are,” Simon remarked, picking his teeth. “They say that BioGen’s just another multi-national company that’s making too much money. They say BioGen’s technology is irresponsible and that stuff Dad did is wrecking our ecosystems like diversity, evolution and stuff.”
“What do the Gaians know, they’re luddites,” Julia snorted with disgust, parroting what our father always said. I knew she didn’t know what a luddite was. “Dad just made a little mistake once. Some DNA escaped and went rogue on them. Part of the risk we have to take in GE crops.”
“Yeah, like widespread famine,” Simon muttered, shaking his head.
Julia frowned with worry. “Tante Lise isn’t a Gaian . . . is she?”
“Dunno.” Simon shrugged and absently raked back his mat of straw-coloured hair with his hands. “She doesn’t like what Dad was doing. Lots of people think it’s wrong. Even Mom.”
“Mom’s just scared they’ll find us,” Julia grumbled. “She’s scared of everything,” Julia murmured more to herself than to Simon, as if trying to convince herself.
As we stepped out of the cool dappled forest into the warm sunshine of a small clearing, Simon announced that we should eat some lunch. I was happy to comply.
“It’s only ten-thirty,” Julia objected.
“Well, I’m hungry. So it’s time to eat.”
“You can’t tell me when to eat,” Julia said tartly. “Pig!”
“That’s because you only brought along some crackers while I made three sandwiches for me! You’re never prepared,” he said smugly. “And now you’re jealous!”
“I’m not jealous,” Julia said haughtily. “I’m just not hungry.”
“You are.”
“Am not!” Her face went pink.
“Are too, dork!” He laughed then promptly sat down on a patch of matted long grass and swung out his backpack. Without waiting for either of us to agree or even join him, Simon fished out a peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwich and bolted it down with gluttonous pleasure as I longed in silence. He wasn’t a particularly tidy eater and left a smear of red jam on his chin. I noticed that his cheeks were flushed already from the heat and sweat glistened on his nose and forehead.
Julia stomped around then finally dropped down and threw her arms against her upraised knees, glowering at her older brother. Even if she was hungry she wasn’t going to admit to it now. I was ready to confess my hunger in hopes of receiving a morsel, but Julie glared at me as if she’d read my mind. My shoulders drooped in defeat.
Once Simon finished his first course of lunch, we plunged back into the forest out of the burning sun. The deer flies buzzed furiously around our heads amid wild arm waving and frustrated outcries. Simon led us up a hill toward a large hemlock grove. He scrambled a steep incline to a narrow long ledge that may have once been a path. The forest floor was carpeted with dead needles and tiny fallen cones and dotted with young maple saplings. Like a man who had found gold, Simon bent down and gathered a handful of cones then darted behind a tree. Julia waited for me catch up before she scrambled up then shrieked at the deluge of cones Simon flung at her face. He sniggered as she practically fell backwards on top of me then swore furiously at him, her face red with embarrassment.
“Come on!” Simon said enthusiastically. “Let’s play war!”
Eager to play, Julia ran for cover and gathered her own arsenal of weapons.
“You can’t use your hands!” Simon warned just as Julia was about to throw some cones at him. “You have to make a slingshot using a tree like this.” He squatted over a young sapling and bent its branches into a mutilated mess, fit a cone into his makeshift catapult, pulled the sapling back than let it spring naturally towards Julia. The cone flew past her head, barely missing her. Both participants shrieked with pleasure.
As Julia and Simon collected their cones, I, left out of the game as usual, sat back like a dutiful and appreciative audience to watch their creative entertainment. The warriors shot in earnest, sometimes hitting their opponent with a victorious cry, other times — most of the time — missing widely. In the process the poor saplings they used were swiftly demolished and they had to forage for a new catapult. During one of her forages Julia tripped on an exposed root and fell headlong to the ground with a hollow thud. When she didn’t get up right away, Simon jeered, “Hey, clone monster! Get up!”
She jerked to her feet, wiping her head and pushing back her thick mane of chestnut hair and tucking it behind her ears. I noticed a cut on her dirt-smeared forehead. “Don’t call me that, you moron!” she spat out, temper flaring.
“You’re the moron! You never do anything on your own,” he bit out. “That’s ‘cause Dad made you out of spare parts back at the lab!” That line was usually reserved for me and I was used to it. But Julia couldn’t bear the insult.
“You shut up!” she screamed. “I’m tired of your snotty remarks about Dad. You can keep them to yourself–”
“Until he gets us all killed when they come looking for ‘Doctor Frankenstein’!” Simon mocked.
Julia bolted at him, hands lashing out like raptor’s talons. He jerked out of her clawing hands and tackled her. They rolled among the dead leaves, hands swiping and legs kicking. I couldn’t tell who was winning but both were crying.
“Stop it! Stop it!” I pleaded and tried to pry them apart. I finally succeeded but only after receiving a kick in the stomach.
Simon stood up first, nose bleeding and an eye already swollen. “You bitch!” he screamed down at her as she pushed herself off the ground and wiped her dirty tear-stained face. “You crazy bitch! You don’t care about Mom. You’re just like Dad: he should have thought about us before he went and made all those monsters!”
“Go to hell!” she shrieked. “You haven’t a clue what he was doing. He was feeding the hungry of the world!”
“Yeah? Meantime we’re polluting it so much we’re killing everyone we’re feeding!”
“Can’t we do both with the same tool?” I piped up. “Like the plants?”
“What?” They both turned haltingly to me like I was an alien who’d just uttered gibberish.
“Feed the hungry and clean up the pollution,” I said. One day while my brother and sister were in school, my father had pulled me out of school to take me on a tour of the BioGen facility and show me their artificial photosynthesis lab: “How marvelous,” he’d exulted, “if we could copy what chloroplasts do and plug directly into the sun without burning a drop of oil. No more hungry people. No more fossil fuel and no more pollution.”
He’d dropped me off at my mother’s lab and she’d shown me holo-images generated through electron tomography of mitochondria and chloroplasts. While my father had dedicated himself to feeding the starving masses, my mother dreamed of a world where people no longer needed to eat. The mitochondria and chloroplasts shared a common ancestry, she explained to me. They both descended from earlier prokaryotic cells that established themselves as internal symbionts — endosymbionts, we now call them — of a larger anaerobic cell. The similarities between these two organelles were uncanny, my mother went on: for instance, they both contained their own DNA and ribosomes; they divided by themselves and used the same enzyme to produce energy in the form of ATP. The only major difference was how they produced ATP. While chloroplasts used chlorophyll to capture the sun’s energy, mitochondria broke down glucose in the food we eat. Inspired by my father’s tools and my mother’s vision, I soared on a dream of people capable of photosynthesis in a Ciamician world.
“Dad told me,” my words rushed out in a torrent, knowing I had seconds before they ignored me again, “about a scientist named Giacomo Ciamician who a hundred years ago dreamed of a world where photosynthesis did everything for us–”
Julia took in a sharp breath and turned back to rail at Simon: “You’re so narrow-minded, just like a Gaian, just like Mom!” She retrieved her bow, scattered arrows and quiver. “Come on, Claire.” Julia took my hand with a last glare at Simon who was brushing off the mess from his shirt and pants. “We’re going home.” Without waiting for me to decide, she led me at a brisk pace back to the farm.
“Do that!” Simon yelled after us and sat down on a rock to sulk. I turned my head for a last glimpse at him as Julia tugged me hard down the hill.
“Shouldn’t we wait for him?” I asked innocently when I lost sight of him.
“He can find his own way home,” she muttered, tugging me harder. “He led us here, didn’t he?”
I staggered over the rough terrain to keep up, secretly praying that Julia knew the way. It wasn’t Simon I was worried about. The sun disappeared behind carbon-coloured clouds. They scudded overhead like prey, chased by a biting wind. It howled and sent the Trembling Aspens thrashing above us. Their lanky poles clanked like bones to the moaning wind as the leaves hissed a mad chorus.
“What if we meet a bear?” I asked, starting to feel unsafe.
“There aren’t any bears in the forest, Claire,” Julia said shaking her head sarcastically at me. “Besides, I have my bow and arrows.” She tapped her quiver and bow smugly. She was right, I thought, pacified by her confidence. She was good with that thing and I was a little surprised that she didn’t remind me of the four rabbits and two coyotes she’d killed while all Simon had managed to do was wound a rabbit with his.
We broke through the perimeter of the dense forest to the farm as rain pelted us like missals, instantly drenching us. As if the stinging rain warned her, Julia gripped my arm to stay me and I saw her eyes harden as she threw swift glances to the open garden gate, the greenhouse whose door was ajar–
I squeaked in surprise as she clamped a hand over my mouth. “Shhh! Hold still!” she hissed, glaring at me under streams of wet hair. Then she let go and I couldn’t stop trembling while she snatched her bow and loaded it with an arrow. As if in response to her move, the front door of the farmhouse creaked open and a large unshaven man with unwashed hair and eyes glinting of malice lumbered out. He carried a loaded sack in one dirty hand and a blood-covered knife in the other. The man spotted us and I hitched my breath, stiff with terror, not daring to blink the rain off my eyelashes. He grinned, baring yellow teeth, and stomped toward us. I scrambled behind Julia and clutched her shorts leg.
Julia glanced from the man’s churlish grin to his knife and raised her bow. He laughed at her. She didn’t know that our parents and relatives lay dead inside. Yet without hesitation she drew the bow back and let the arrow fly. It sunk into his chest and he inhaled sharply, eyes bulging in disbelief. Then he charged us. I cringed and wet my pants. Julia stood like a statue, her arm a blur of reloading, and struck him with two or more arrows before he staggered and fell dead on his face metres from us.
Gruff laughter from the side of the house warned us that there were more men. Julia seized my arm and dove for cover in a small thicket by the cherry tree just as Simon broke through the forest into the clearing. I shivered, cowering in our wet hiding place as several men marched past us toward the dead man. Toward Simon. Simon stood not far from their dead colleague, hair hanging in his eyes and bow in his hand. They made the logical conclusion.
He must have made his own rightful conclusion and his eyes fleetingly strayed, searching hard, beyond the thugs to where we huddled behind them. Did he see us there? I imagined that he did. But before I could see more, Julia shoved my face down into the dirt. What I didn’t see I could only imagine as my heart slammed up my throat: Simon’s and Julia’s eyes locking, their anguished message of agreement. The rest I heard through the hissing rain: a slashing sound, a clipped gasp and a thud. I was choking but didn’t dare struggle. Hot tears stung my eyes. Julia’s firm hand, now shaking, kept me down for an eternity of smelling dirt and rotting vegetation. Of feeling the wet prickle of soil and leaves against my face. Of listening to men’s grunts and shuffling steps wither to a constant sizzle and plopping of rain.
I was young but I knew perfectly well what had just happened: Simon took the hit for us and Julia let him. The first — and last — decision they’d made together was one made in complicity.
~~~~
~~~~
Julia and I made it out of there, after she confirmed that Simon was dead and found our parents and relatives murdered inside the house. We had a difficult journey but were eventually taken in by a kind family where we rode out the remaining years of war until the Gaians established a new government and peace was reinstated.
I found a calling in micro-biomimicry — the Gaian’s answer to mindless technology — at Concordia University in Montreal. Julia never returned to school. She got a job as a waitress and helped me through university. I met André, a med student, and eventually married while Julia wandered like a nomad from one relationship to another. We saw less of one another and I started to think she was avoiding me. When she committed suicide I was shocked. But not surprised.
Had she been running the same thought loop I had? How it might have played if she hadn’t instinctively killed that Gaian.
Had she needlessly killed a man — albeit a murderer — and needlessly caused Simon’s death? If we’d run instead would they have chased us or let us go? They were paid assassins, after all, on a mission to ‘take out’ our father. Not child murderers. Maybe Simon would still be with us and Julia wouldn’t have destroyed herself out of irreconcilable loneliness. . . .
Or had she tapped into some divine providence when she let the arrow fly and saved my life the only way it could have been saved . . . at Simon’s expense . . . and consequently her own? . . .
~~~~
I turn to the audience and spot André and our two children. They blur through my tears. As a scientist I understand that one cannot know the future or one’s destiny; but my heart tells me differently. Like most things for him, my brother’s choice was clearly laid before him. For Julia, as always, it was not so simple. And yet, that spring day she became more than she was and with fluid motions enacted her part in the cruel miracle that brought me here today.
The heaviness in my legs lifts as I make the last steps to the podium in the open-air auditorium that celebrates our clean air. I am finally ready to accept my Nobel Prize. And I know at last what I am going to say:
I’m here today accepting this award for the creation of photosynthetic symbionts in human mitochondria because of my brother and sister. I share this honor with them. If not for their heroism of that day long ago, I would not have survived with the burning motivation and tenacity to pursue a lifelong dream: to serve the human race and the planet with the gift of an alternate and clean source of fuel and food — a way for humanity to directly harness energy from the sun . . . Julia’s gift.
~ The End ~