"Jeff Hecht - Squirrels" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hecht Jeff)

======================
Squirrels
by Jeff Hecht
======================

Copyright (c)2000 by Jeff Hecht
First published in HMS Beagle, June 2000

Fictionwise
www.Fictionwise.com

Science Fiction


---------------------------------
NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original
purchaser. Duplication or distribution of this work by email, floppy disk,
network, paper print out, or any other method is a violation of international
copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines and/or imprisonment.
---------------------------------


"It was natural to look at squirrels when I decided to study genetic
variability," Professor White began. "The campus is full of them, and the cars
and groundskeepers keep hitting them. I needed something cheap, you know. The
university doesn't have much research budget for retired professors, and I
need to keep my mind busy."
I nodded, trying at least to appear sympathetic. Back when I was in
grade school, she had been a research superstar. Her resume listed a dozen
papers in _Science_, several in _Cell_, and a couple in _Nature_, but she was
75 now, and those papers were all at least a decade old.
"Gray squirrels pose some interesting questions, you know, because they
live in both city and country environments. Urban squirrels behave
differently; before they cut down the trees to build that ugly parking lot,
the squirrels used to sit on a branch just outside the window and stare at me.
Rural squirrels don't do that. I wondered if that difference in urban behavior
reflected genetic drift. I thought someone should have done some genetic
sequences on them, but I couldn't find anything in the literature. You
wouldn't believe how far computerized databases have come. Do you use them in
the research administration office?" A dreamy expression crossed her face and
she glanced out the window at the parking lot.
"Are you sure there's nothing on squirrels?" I asked, trying to keep
her attention. The provost had warned that her mind wandered when he asked me
to check on her.
She turned back, her sharp blue eyes staring into mine. "Of course.
Squirrel genetics were beneath them. They were vermin. The animals, that is.
Mice and rat genetics were known, what geneticist wanted to bother with
squirrels?"
My digital voice recorder took it all in; I love new toys, and I could
see her office didn't have anything newer than a five-year-old computer. "What