[OT] Short sci-fi story: The Lifeboat

Originally posted by geoschmo:
My actual knowledge isn't any more then yours, but my best guess would cause me to be a little more optimistic. Our bodies don't really need specific types of plant and animal matter afterall. Our digestive system breaks those down into the basic nutrient blocks that our body does need. And those basic nutrients should be pretty much the same, despite being combined in radically different ways. Of course our survivors would probably need a chemist or botanist and some laboratory equipment to be able to determine what is safe to eat and what's not. Since we wouldn't have millions of years of common memory to rely on.

Caveat: My understanding is also based on pop-science and sci-fi, but here goes...

Our digestive systems break food down by enzyme action. It's not enough that a molecule be composed of the right number of atoms of Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen, they also have to be the right shape for the enzyme to be able to "fit" and catalyse a reaction. For example, it's possible to make sugars whose molecules are the mirror-image of the shape of "normal" sugars, and these manufactured sugars will pass straight through the system without being digested because our sugar enzymes don't match them.

And supposing we can digest the alien plants (or animals)? Humans digest proteins by breaking them down into their component amino acids, absorbing them into the bloodstream, and then re-assembling them into the proteins we need. But we need a particular balance of IIRC eight key amino acids, in the right proportion. It's possible for example for a badly chosen vegetarian diet to contain lots of protein, but for the protein to be nutrionally useless because key amino acids are missing or in short supply.

Given how many possible combinations of protein and polysacharride (it's a long time since I've had to spell that...) there are, it's hard NOT to image a carbon-and-water based alien bio-chemical ecosystem that's like ours, but not like ours enough to be edible (or at least, nutritious when eaten...)

Mark

[dogscoff]

OK, Geo inspired me, although I felt like throwing some discontentment into the mix. Here goes...

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Steve grumbled as he removed the Last of the wheels from his beloved van, which was propped up on four miscellaneous items of approximately equal height. He'd rescued this van from a scrap merchant four years ago and for five months poured all his spare time and money into renovating and decorating it. He'd surfed every beach in Australia from that van, driven it around Tasmania and half way round New Zealand, only for it to come to this. He reckoned he'd covered well over a hundred thousand Ks in it- although he guessed he could add some light-years to that now. He sighed and swore as he pulled the wheel off and laid it aside, then started considering the axles. 'Why am I doing this?' He thought, but dutifully slid underneath and began reaching for the tools to remove them. he'd thrown parties out of that van, even lost his virginity in it. He sighed and grumbled again, then swore loudly as his hand slipped onto a rusty edge and a gash of red appeared along the side of his thumb. He'd have to go and ask that miserable Maggie woman for some bandages and antiseptic or something. She was only a physiotherapist, but along with a trainee pharmacist from the tour group and a few first-aiders she was the closest they had to a doctor. Maybe the other village would have someone better trained, if those two ever got back with the bikes.

Steve slid out from under the van and nursed his hand, sucking away the grease and blood. The engine compartment lay open, empty. It had been his own suggestion to use the trusty old diesel engine to haul timber from the forest at the edges of the bLast area, but he never for a minute meant to remove the engine from the van. He wished he hadn't said anything, but he just had to break the monnotony of everyone else's voices. Those campfire meetings were so boring and self-congratulatory. Steve sometimes wondered if they weren't actually enjoying this nightmare, with all the energy and zeal they put into everything. John was the worst, by far. The humble farmer and self-appointed chairman of the community had soon assumed a kind of mediative supreme authority and ruled with an air of apparent openness and acceptance. However, there was definitely an inner circle in Steve's opinion- a cliquey little enclave consisting of his own extended family, the african elder guy and the Dunfords- and it soon became clear to Steve that anything coming from outside that group was insignificant, or worthy only of consideration after a great deal of debating, debunking and redefinition by the higher-ups. Therefore his own suggestion of turning the van's engine into a winch to drag logs across the scorched ground had mutated into a plan to remove the engine from the van and mounting it to a simple frame of scaffolding poles that could be moved closer to the bLast radius, so that the winching could be done in a series of shorter, easier twenty-metre drags rather than a single drag of several hundred. The fuel remaining in the van would probably be enough to shift a few tonsof what an initial survey had found to be sturdy, heavy plant material that could be cut quite adequately with their saws. There were plans to build a few shelters, since the tents, the vans and the tarpaulin shelters were only barely adequate for their numbers. Since the aliens had incinerated anything within a kilometre or more of the camp and early, cautious explorations had come up with no worthwhile sources of masonry- which would have been just as heavy anyway, Steve supposed- that meant that his van was needed to haul timber.

When the campfire meeting had finished stripping his beloved camper of its wheels and axles to be used in the winch frame, they'd commandeering his surfBoards- nothing was sacred- for the eventual construction of a raft for reaching the other village. It had all been carried by a vote, and the fact that they were Steve's van and Steve's surfBoards simply wasn't a consideration. Now denuded completely and stripped of all dignity- even the custom paint job was gradually disappearing beneath a layer of white ash kicked up frm the surrounding soil- all that was left was to lower the van's bare shell down into its final resting position to serve as maternity ward and post-natal nest for Ruth, who was due to drop any day now.

Ruth was one of the few people here Steve actually liked, although she reminded him painfully of an ex-girlfriend back in Melbourne, either dead by now or waiting for her time to starve under a thick, lightless sky. He choked up just thinking about it- imagining his friends and family looting supermarkets to survive just a few weeks longer, rioting for food- but gulped back the tears. It was fine for John and the Dunfords, they had all managed to bring people they loved. They could sit at the head of the group feeling smug and superior, but Steve had been travelling alone, and he was here alone. Maybe when they got news from the other village, he could be the next to visit. Maybe things were different there. Standing now, he kicked the tyre lying prone upon the floor and made his way over to find Maggie.

**********************

Who's next then? Come on ppl...

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Mark the Merciful:
Given how many possible combinations of protein and polysacharride (it's a long time since I've had to spell that...) there are, it's hard NOT to image a carbon-and-water based alien bio-chemical ecosystem that's like ours, but not like ours enough to be edible (or at least, nutritious when eaten...)

Ok, well what I was thinking was that here on earth there are lots of different combinations and we can still eat a lot of them. Of course in the wild maybe that's not so true. The closest I get to vegitation normally is the produce section of my supermarket, and almost everything there is edible.

Not to mention that we humans have been shaping our landscape for millenia, so even the "wild" plants and animals have been affected in ways that maybe we can't even know.

I still think it reasonable that some edible plant material could be found. Sure not everything would be, but not everything here is either. But the large number of different species present in your typical ecosystem would allow for some to be useable as food just from basic probability.

Geoschmo

P.S. Dogscoff, check your PM?

[sachmo]

The was some grass from New Zealand.

[Intimidator]

Originally posted by clark:
Not very knowledgeable myself, but it would seem that there might be some things we could digest and process, and some things we couldn't. It really could go either way (think peanut allergies- they lack the enzymes to break down the peanuts)

I might mention about the story, which is really good, what the heck are the cows going to eat?

Because there is no bull present, I think they are the food Not let them eat your food eat them !!!!

[sachmo]

Originally posted by Intimidator:

quote:

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Originally posted by clark:
Not very knowledgeable myself, but it would seem that there might be some things we could digest and process, and some things we couldn't. It really could go either way (think peanut allergies- they lack the enzymes to break down the peanuts)

I might mention about the story, which is really good, what the heck are the cows going to eat?

Because there is no bull present, I think they are the food Not let them eat your food eat them !!!!

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Not yet, anyway. Someone else could have a bull.

[clark]

Where there is a bull, there is usually bullsh...