The Book of Generation The Book of Generation
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“Creating the World”, 1921, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Experiences, Fiction

The Book of Generation

A Creation Story
Tomasz Sitarz
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time 6 minutes

Contemporary biology has met mythology, and as fate would have it, Tomasz Sitarz was there to see it. A story emerged about competition, and about a battle in every cubic centimetre of the soil, but also about the grand alliance between fungi and plants.

In the beginning was the seed.

He said: “Let there be water, an environment for chemical reactions and a solvent for all of life.”

And the seed, placed in the black soil, swelled with the water it took in and took its first breath. The enigmatic emanations of elemental life energy, the lipases, amylases and proteases, attacked the stored substances, cutting the chains of their polymers, breaking the handcuffs that shackled metabolism, which once begun will last until the end of time.

He said: “Let there be light, which will be absorbed by chlorophyll, and let the energy of each quantum of light be food

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Of Viruses and Men Of Viruses and Men
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Source: CDC/Unsplash
Opinions

Of Viruses and Men

Biological Dreams
Tomasz Sitarz

Join our fearless biologist-reporter, this time invigilating the circles of ruthless murderers who hide their stealthy genetic material under the cloak they call capsid.

Due to the recent restrictions with regard to leaving the house, my laboratory work was lately limited to pondering on various questions and dream-reading through the lens of biological events. Last night, I experienced a vision in the form of a molecular whisper; an investigation dream, if you like. I, the accused, stood in the middle of a large room, the thundering voice of the SARS-CoV-2 virion booming above my head. The room was round, and the benches by its walls towered all the way up to the ceiling. In the seats were all kinds of viruses, crowding and pointing at me with their appendages. I was asked all kinds of accusatory questions and had to answer them according to humanity’s best knowledge. I will now try and give an account of what I saw and heard during that nocturnal event, in hopes that my observations are useful to others.

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