Talk:Wild Earth (Chronicle)

The line, "including the production of antibodies that might poison the parasite", is slightly problematic, as plants do not produce antibodies (unless they are specifically adapted to do so). Dynamic antibody production (that can target more than one thing) requires an adaptive immune system (think T-cells, B-cells and lymph nodes). Plants have only innate immune systems (a generic set of signaling proteins and structural proteins which trigger the construction of a kind of 'biological-drill' that attaches to and punctures invading cells; along with a set of signalling chemicals that triggered apoptosis in and 'quarantine' of infected tissues). Even in plants that do produce antibodies, those antibodies are tooled before-hand by geneticists and so only fight off (i.e. chemically bond to) one specific thing.

The word "antibodies" might be better replaced with the term "an immune response"... that is assuming this isn't some super-advanced space tree with an adaptive immune system... which (for some reason) still can't fight off this super advanced parasite plant.

Don't get me wrong though, I still appreciate the metaphor. Large scale tissue apoptosis, the many sacrificing themselves for the good of the whole, is very Caldari. And the fact that the process is being interdicted helps to build the sense of tension. Whether the tension is between Heth and the populous or the Corporate Aristocracy and the original ideals of the State.. I'm still not sure, but, in the end, I suppose its a matter of personal perspective.

Also, as an aside, the parasitic plant needles are called haustorium, and they are an excellent metaphor for Guerrilla Warfare and entrenched resistance to regime change (see Cuscata removal). I expect that if someone with this type of gardening philosophy comes to power in the State, we can expect her "pruning" to take quite the toll in lives.

All in all, a good read.

P.S. Could you guys please throw an author and date into each of the chronicles, it's quite difficult to find who wrote what when. --Faulx 23:49, 6 February 2013 (GMT)

Thanks for a very interesting comment. We're going to leave the story as-is, however; we're already in a grey area with the flora and fauna of New Eden, given that some of the species grown there were likely indigenous before Earth settlers arrived, and there are all kinds of questions regarding the cellular level of science (whether local plants and Earth plants could be mixed; how they would have evolved in twenty thousand years, etc) that we've consciously avoided asking. We'll just imagine that at some point, either on Earth in the year 8000, or some time after the EVE gate collapse, or at some point for some indigenous plant of New Eden, a plant evolved that could produce antibodies.

As for authors, I'm afraid it's company policy not to include those with the stories. We've mentioned them in newsposts, but that's as far as we're allowed to go. There stories are, however, ordered by date of publication on the chronicle portal.--CCP Abraxas 12:19, 14 February 2013 (GMT)