Cicada science
The drone of Brood X cicadas fills my neighborhood. They’ve been hidden underground for seventeen years. When they finally emerge into the light of day, they climb, they sing, they breed — and then they die, within no more than four weeks after emerging.
Seems like a lot of foreplay for a little sex, doesn’t it?
But for an insect, the cicada lives an incredibly long life — it’s just that most of that life is spent underground, where it’s been growing fat by sipping on tree roots. The brief period we see them is just the final act of a long story, the all-important climax of passing genes on to the next generation.
Like the salmon fighting their way upstream to spawn, in their final stage of life, cicadas don’t even eat. Their sole reason to exist in those last few days is to pass on their genes. It’s a reminder that genes don’t have a goal other than to be replicated in the next generation: natural selection favors survival of a gene, not survival of a species or even an organism.
That seems odd to humans, who reproduce early in adulthood and who expect to live decades more. Why the difference? Our children need us. Unlike insects, they don’t hatch ready to survive on their own.
So when you contemplate your long life, thank your children! If they weren’t born so helpless, human lives might pass as quickly as a cicada’s song!
Like cool genetics in your science fiction? Check out Project Hannibal and Monkey Girl.
#cicadas, #genetics, #sciencefiction
