"Kim Stanley Robinson - Forty Signs of Rain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

working Congress like the fucking NRA to get the budget it deserves, which is amuch bigger budget, as
big as the PentagonтАЩs, really those two budgets should bereversed to get them to their proper level of
funding, but none of it is happening or will happen, and that is why IтАЩm not coming back and no one in his
right mind would come back either

The plane had started to descend.

Well, it would need a little revision. Mixed metaphors; something was either a chicken or an ostrich,
even if in fact it was both. But he could work on it. He had a draft in hand, and he would revise it and
then give it to Diane Chang, head of NSF, in the slim hope that it would wake her up.

He hit theSAVE button for the first time in about an hour. The plane turned for its final descent into
Ronald Reagan Airport. Soon he would be back in the wasteland of his current life. Back in the swamp.



BACK IN LeoтАЩs lab, they got busy running trials of PierzinskiтАЩs algorithm, while continuing the ongoing
experiments in тАЬrapid hydrodynamic insertion,тАЭ as it was now called in the emerging literature. Many labs
were working on the delivery problem and, crazy as it seemed, this was one of the more promising
methods being investigated. A bad sign.

Thus they were so busy on both fronts that they didnтАЩt notice at first the results that one of MartaтАЩs
collaborators was getting with PierzinskiтАЩs method. Marta had done her Ph.D. studying the microbiology
of certain algae, and she was still coauthoring papers with a postdoc named Eleanor Dufours. Leo had
met Eleanor, and then read her papers, and been impressed. Now Marta had introduced Eleanor to a
version of PierzinskiтАЩs algorithm, and things were going well, Marta said. Leo thought his group might be
able to learn some things from their work, so he set up a little brown-bag lunch for Eleanor to give a talk.

тАЬWhat weтАЩve been looking into,тАЭ Eleanor said that day in her quiet steady voice, very unlike MartaтАЩs, тАЬis
the algae in certain lichens. DNA histories are making it clear that some lichens are really ancient
partnerships of algae and fungus, and weтАЩve been genetically altering the algae in one of the oldest,
Cornicularia cornuta. It grows on trees, and works its way into the trees to a quite suprising degree. We
think the lichen is helping the trees it colonizes by taking over the treeтАЩs hormone regulation and increasing
the treeтАЩs ability to absorb lignins through the growing season.тАЭ

She talked about the possibility of changing their metabolic rates. тАЬLately weтАЩve been trying these
algorithms Marta brought over, trying to find symbiotes that speed the lichenтАЩs ability to add lignin to the
trees.тАЭ
Evolutionary engineering, Leo thought, shaking his head. His lab was trying to do similar things, of
course, but he seldom thought of it that way. He needed to get this outside view to defamiliarize what he
did, to see better what was going on.

тАЬWhy speed up lignin banking?тАЭ Brian wanted to know. тАЬI mean, what use would it be?тАЭ

тАЬWeтАЩve been thinking it might work as a carbon sink.тАЭ

тАЬHow so?тАЭ

тАЬWell, you know, people are talking about capturing and sequestering some of the carbon weтАЩve put
into the atmosphere, in carbon sinks of one kind or other. But no method has looked really good yet.