"Theodore Sturgeon - Slow Sculpture" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sturgeon Theodore)

could she live?
II
He seemed concerned with the answer to only one of
these.
"It's mostly built around an isotope of potassium. If I
told you all I know about it and how I came on it in
the first place it would take--well, more time than we've
got. But here's the general idea. Theoretically, every atom
is electrically balanced--never mind ordinary exceptions.
Likewise all electrical charges in the molecule are sup-
posed to be balanced--so much plus, so much minus,
total zero. I happened on the fact that 'the balance of
charges in a wild cell is not zero--not quite. It's as if there
were a submicroscopic thunderstorm going on at 'the
molecular level, with little lightning bolts flashing back and
forth and changing the signs. Interfering with oommu-
nications-static--and that," he said, gesturing with the
shielded hypo in his hand, "is what this is all about.
When something interferes with communications--espe-
cially the RNA mechanism that says. Read this blueprint,
build accordingly and stop when it's done--when that
message gets garbled lopsided things get built. Off balance
things. Things that do almost what they should, do it
almost right-they're wild cells and the messages they
pass on are even worse.
"Okay. Whether these thunderstorms are caused by



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viruses or chemicals or radiation or physical 'trauma or
even anxiety and don't think anxiety can't do--it is
secondary. The important thing is to fix it so the thunder-
storm can't happen. If you can do that the cells have
plenty of ability all by themselves to repair and replace
what's gone wrong. And biological systems aren't like
ping-pong balls with static charges waiting for the charge
to leak away or to discharge into a grounded wire. They
have a kind of resilience--I call it forgiveness--that
enables them to take on a little more charge, or a little
less, and do all right. Well, then say a certain clump of
cells is wild and say it carries an aggregate of a hundred
units extra on the positive side. Cells immediately around
it are affected but not the next layer or the next.
"If they could be opened to the extra charge if they
could help to drain it off they would, well, cure the wild
cells of the surplus. You see what I mean? And they
would be able to handle that little overage themselves or