The Studies of the Darwin
The natural history of another world...
By Christian Darkin
On a bright night you can see the star. It seems unremarkable enough in a galaxy of stars, but every child has learned to recognise it. The most powerful telescopes of the 20th century might just have been able to detect the blur of a planet orbiting the star, but it took two decades of the 21st century before the images could be sharpened enough to reveal its uniqueness. Our century's greatest achievement orbits that planet, and it was triggered by the simple sighting of a colour. A colour spread right across the planet which when analysed and separated into its component wavelengths could only have one possible explanation. The colour was green, and the explanation was life.
This lavishly illustrated book is a study of natural history, and of the science that seeks to understand it. It is the story of the planning, setting up and running of humanity's first research base orbiting a planet around another world. By examining the methods the scientists use to try to make sense of their new world, and learning about the ecology they uncover, we draw parallels with our own world, and the scientific processes used to understand it.
120 years after the mission was launched, Earth begins to receive the first data from the distant research base. Probes launched by the scientists "on location" have sent back photographs, and video images from the planet's surface, and piece by piece, a detailed study of the new world is being put together.
The proposed book is assembled from the probes' data, the scientists observations, and personal diaries, combined with actual interviews with real scientists working on the same kind of problems today.
Part 1 -The Mission
The problems, both political and scientific, were immense - but with the discovery of a life sustaining planet orbiting a (relatively) local star system, the impetus was equally great. Whatever the costs, whatever the risks, mankind had to reach it. The nature of our species demanded it.
Neither was an unmanned mission acceptable. To send a simple probe on the eighty year trip was deemed pointless. By the time it reached its destination, its technology would be obsolete. In addition, not knowing what to expect, there was no way to produce a suitably versatile probe. No, the new world had to be explored, and only a manned research base could do the job.
Dramatised interviews with the engineers involved in the construction of the mission, and the biologists who will be taking the one-way trip, and detailed photographs of the mission will explore the difficulties of undertaking such a long journey, and of setting up a sustainable biosphere above the planet's surface.
Part 2 - the Upper atmosphere
The first probes launched from the orbiting satellite are similar to model planes. Designed to float in the planet's methane clouds, high above the surface, they beam back images and film of a rich ecosystem in the sky.
The methane clouds provide pockets of methane heavy atmosphere - thousands of small islands between which creatures are seldom able to cross. This creates a diversity in the floating creatures, which is comparable to Darwin's Galapagos Finches.
Part 3 - Displays
A whole range of sub-aqua probes have been making a comprehensive study of the planet's sea-life, focussing on the shoreline, and surface areas of the oceans where life is concentrated.
Life originated in the oceans, and on a planet much younger than the Earth, some of the earliest life-forms are still flourishing. One of the earliest evolutionary developments was the ability to alter the skin's pigmentation, and consequently, the language of colour rules here. The oceans are alive with colourful displays, sophisticated communications and elaborate rituals.
Part 4 - The herds
The nature of the plains, and the animals which live on them has created a set of complex social structures and symbiotic relationships both within individual species, and between members of different species. It is these inter-dependencies which the biologists study in this section of the book.
Part 5 - Forests in flight
By one of those flukes which so often alter the path of scientific research, a probe destined for the temperate forests of Alpha 4 lands instead on the back of a giant, flying leviathan - a creature so huge and ancient that an entire ecosystem has established itself on the animal's ray-like wings.
It takes several weeks of confusing readings from the probe's sensors, and a detailed examination of the creatures inhabiting this strange environment before the biologists even realise their mistake. Further study reveals the nature of the huge hosts, gliding effortlessly over the planet's surface feeding on swarms of tiny flying creatures.
Part 6 - Land-fall
Exploration of the new world moves into another phase. The Biologists decide to attempt a manned landing on the alien world. The main concern of their expedition will be to set up a permanent encampment and study area.
But can this be achieved without damaging the world they have come to study? Indeed, can any kind of serious scientific research be undertaken without the method of study affecting the results?