Steven Longworth's "Succussion" (short story, humor): How humans acquired immortality!
I had never heard of the premise of this story - the theory behind homeopathic medication: "'Like fights like'. So if you are treating a fever you give the patient something that causes a fever, but ... you dilute it over and over again, and each time you dilute it the treatment gets stronger. With each dilution the solution is vigorously shaken, a process known as ‘succussion’. There are those who speculate that succussion causes the water molecules to ‘remember’ the active ingredient even when Avogadro says there is not a trace of it left. Dilution makes it stronger."
Well, millions of people world over have been taking homeopathic drugs for 200 years - taking medication for every ailment imaginable. Since everything you take, you eventually excrete, & earth eventually recycles - every step diluting it (hence making the drugs more potent!) - the world's water resources are now a rather potent homeopathic drug! No one now falls sick. People are effectively immortal!!!
Full text of this story is available for download.
Fact sheet.
"Succussion", short story, reviewFirst published: Nature magazine, 16 August 2007.
Rating: B
2 comments:
Tinkoo, just came across the news that Arthur C. Clarke has passed away. It is indeed end of a great era in science fiction. Waiting to hear more from you.
I should be doing a suggested reading list of him later tonight. I've already written quite a bit about his short stories, novels, & collections.
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