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Comma Press are great at putting together art and science to make original short story anthologies. They’ve done three science-based fiction anthologies like this: When it changed, Litmus and Biopunk, and I’ve been lucky enough to contribute to them all.
For Biopunk, editor Ra Page sent me off to the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, home of Dolly the sheep. There, I spent a morning with Professor Bruce Whitelaw, who is leading a project trying to take the technology that made Dolly to somewhere incredible. They’re trying to see whether they can get one species to give birth to a completely different species.
If successful, this technology could be used for conservation purposes. If, say, the population of Scottish wildcats became so small that there were no longer enough individuals to sustain the species, you could get a domestic moggy giving birth to Scottish wildcat clones. Over a latte, Professor Whitelaw gave me a glimpse into a strange future where the species boundaries are broken down. Of course, this was hugely inspiring for writing fiction.
My story, An Industrial Evolution, is set in 2044, when the orangutan population has been saved, but by commercial – not conservation – interests.
The book also features stories by Jane Feaver, Simon Ings, Annie Kirby, Toby Litt, Sara Maitland, Gregory Norminton, Sean O’Brien, KJ Orr, Justina Robson, Jane Rogers, Dilys Rose, Sarah Schofield and Simon Van Booy. Each of the stories includes an afterword by the collaborating scientist, explaining the science behind the art. The project was supported by the Wellcome Trust.