cover art by Howard Vachel Brown |
Here is a line from "Liquid Life":
"A filterable virus is a living liquid."
This blunt statement is made by Hans Schmidt, a "bio-chemist" working in Boston at the laboratory of John Dee Service, Inc. Eventually, Asimov became a biochemist who worked in Boston. It is no surprise that Farley set this story in New England; that is where he was born and went to school.
Sites for early life? (image source) |
Back at the lab, chemist Jack Dee announces to his lab mates (including Schmidt and Ivan Zenoff, a biologist) that the water in Salt Pond is not acidic. Although he had been warned and knows that he should to take precautions when handling the pond water, Jack still ends up with a burn-like wound on his hand.
In "Liquid Life", Zenoff states authoritatively, "Life originated in the sea." (however, see this) Here in 2018, the origin of life is still mysterious. Three popular hypotheses are 1) life originated on some other planet (maybe Mars) and was brought to Earth (panspermia), 2) life arose from the chemistry of the deep ocean floor and 3) life began on land, maybe in some "warm little pond".
Top: electron microscopy bottom: structural model |
We now know that a bacteriophage is just one example of the many different types of viruses. A bacteriophage is a subcellular molecular complex of protein and nucleic acid. Unable to function as a complete living organism, a virus must insert its nucleic acid into a living cell and make use of the cell's systems for replicating nucleic acids and making new proteins in order to make more copies of the virus. However, in 1936 the molecular structure of a filterable virus was still unknown to Earthly science and many biologists thought that nucleic acids were too simple to serve as the genetic molecule of living cells. Farley had apparently read about the ability of bacteriophage to lyse and "dissolve" bacteria, so his imaginary creature from Salt Pond does the same to a cat!
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Zenoff's experiment for listening in on a brain (as depicted by Farley in "Liquid Life") was ahead of Earthly science as it existed in 1936. However, by the end of that century, neurobiologists were able to perform computer-aided processing of signals recorded from living brain tissue that had been implanted with an array of micro-electrodes (see the image to the left).
At first, the bucket of "liquid life" (the liquefied cat) seems to only repeat back words that it has heard the three scientists speak. (How a bucket full of liquid can hear and think is never explained.) Then, just when Zenoff states that the "liquid life" has a "low order intelligence", the "liquid life" says:
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"Fellows, it is you who have low order of intelligence. You, not I."
After a good night's sleep, Zenoff is ready to conclude, "We have discovered a new type of mind!"
Soon the "liquid mind" is proving itself to be very clever, and it helps immensely with the consulting business of John Dee Service, Inc.
cover art by Bill Botten |
In 1935, it had been shown that a virus had a definite chemical structure and could form crystals. It would be interesting to know what a non-scientist like Farley imagined was in his "living liquid".
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By the 1990s, nanites were common ultra-small components of alien artificial life forms in many science fiction stories.
For the Exode Saga, I imagine even smaller forms of artificial alien life that are composed of femtobots and zeptites.
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SIHA Nomination
I'm nominating the film Annihilation for the 2018 SIHA award. Could the events in the movie Annihilation be accounted for by an alien life form that is composed of nanites?
Alien Search: SIHA 2018
Next: a timeline of events in the Asimov Reality
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