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Transgenic creatures at habitats

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Marek Krysiak Marek Krysiak's picture
Transgenic creatures at habitats
I though that would be interesting to read about some of the transgenic plants and animals GMs introduce in their games. Here’s my proposition: Flower frogs Flower frogs are genehacked animals designed to live in microgravity. They are also called orchid frogs or flytraps. Their purpose was originally to hunt insects living in habitats – especially habitats with hydroponic cultures, but more than one scumbarge coped with their roach infestation thanks to flower frogs. The flower frog requires at least moderate air humidity and access to some amount of water in liquid form – especially during the breeding season. The animal itself is, well, a frog. It is brightly coloured, with decorative and highly aesthetic patterns. What makes it different from a regular frog is a large orchid-like structure growing on its back. The structure consists of a set of petals and small tentacles, as well as glands excreting sweet, fruit-scented substance. The flower’s purpose is to attract, entangle and digest small animals (although the flower frog can also eat the regular way). Some breeds use petals as propulsion system – either by flapping them, or by trapping air inside and then pushing it out rapidly. This of course works only in zero- or very low gravity. The flower frog breeds in a quite interesting way. When male and female meet (and if the male is accepted) they join their flowers together, forming sort of a temporary bag. Inside the bag, the female lays her eggs, which are immediately fertilized by the male. The process takes up to one hour. When it’s finished, both frogs split their flowers, sharing fertilized eggs between them, enclosing them inside their respective flowers. At this stage – until eggs hatch and little after that – the frog looks not unlike some kind of a fruit, a pomegranatemaybe (well, apart from eyes and legs which aren’t really standard fruit accessories). When eggs hatch, tadpoles stay in the parent’s flower for a while – usually up to a week or two, depending on temperature and parent’s access to food and water. When tadpoles are big enough (they grow front and rear legs, but don’t lose their tail yet), the parent releases them into some sort of a water environment, or at least a place with very high humidity. Young frogs are omnivorous, initially preferring algae etc. - but with no access to food (or when there is no place the parent can release them from the flower) they can turn to cannibalism. Believe it or not, but in some habitats flower frogs are considered edible and even delicious. It’s a case of personal preferences – not everybody enjoys the sweet taste of their meat. However, discretion is advised – some rare breeds of the flower frog can be intoxicating or poisonous. Most sensible genehackers include some kind of information about the specific breed – often in the form of an inscription appearing somewhere on the frog’s body, tummy being the favourite. [here imagine a picture of a red-and-purple frog, floating in zero-g, with ‘eat when ripe’ inscription across its belly] Flower frogs are open-source.


Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Transgenic creatures at habitats
Word Beetles An open source design for a distributed nanosystem for influencing the appearance of beetles that was spread across the coleopterologist networks of the solar system, courtesy of the renowned biodesigner pair Paul and Karen Ishman. The system does not modify the genome of any of the beetles. Instead the nanodust particles interact with the environment of pupas, linking the pupa to a large linguistic database and an algorithm that selects a word (based on species and local conditions) that will appear on the shell (achieved through local control of morphogen gradients). While intended and appreciated as an artwork, the system also has ecological monitoring potential. The nanodust is often equipped with tracking abilities that remain in the adults, allowing the local ecomonitor devices to track the entire adult beetle population. Dust dispensers are often caumoflaged or integrated in plants. Other biohackers have created their own additions, ranging from prank beetles that show up in swarms and form rude messages, to miniature puppet controls that allow remote controlled swarms of beetles. This model of nanodust that interfaces with insects during development rather than rely on genemods is viewed as a particularly responsible way of handling monitoring and control of nature preserves or overly sensitive ecosystems. A few people think that the beetle messages actually have meaning. Some merely watch nearby beetles for random clues or words to include in a verse, but a few paranoids think the messages they form are suspiciously meaningful - as if there was some intelligence guiding them.
Extropian
CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture
Re: Transgenic creatures at habitats
Roper Vines Designed as a side project by one of the biologists working for the Qel'Thyr Consortium, these beautifully patterned vines where initially intended to act quick growing beautification product. Based off of the renowned Kudzu vine native to southern Japan, this extremely quick growing plant is only permitted to be grown on habitats due to the extensive controls put in place by genetically modified fungi that infest its root structure. These fungi has been altered in such a way that they can be remotely activated and deactivated by a specialised, local radiation burst. When activated the fungi begins to rapidly and destructively consume any new vine growth, allowing habitats to essentially turn the vines growth on and off with the flick of a Mesh switch. The fungi are designed to help effectively maintain its locales neutral life support status, allowing the vines to easily be planted on space habitats where the introduction of new biological mechanisms can offset the sensitive balance that sometimes exists. Popular in many Europan homes, Roper Vines have since been modified to react to Transhuman interaction much like a particularly dim animal might. They can be altered to react directly to stimuli such as heat and touch, displaying signs that many find similar to gratitude and affection. Many of the particularly busy Europan citizens find the ease of maintenance and almost null impact on a habitats resources alluring enough to pursue acquiring a license to own such a modified Roper Vine. GM Potential – What happens when a space habitats local Roper Vine population suddenly seems to be unaffected by the radiation bursts that normally activate the limiting fungi? Suddenly they are facing an infestation of a highly destructive plant growth that threatens to clog up the entire stations life support systems in a matter of days. While they could simply release a large contingent of nanoswarms to consume the growth such an option would be extremely expensive and potentially dangerous. Perhaps if someone were to look into why the growth started they might be able to reactive the fungi and save the station from an expensive clean up operation. Not quite the Exsurgent threat they are used to dealing with, but sometimes the little jobs are the important ones.
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nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
Re: Transgenic creatures at habitats
My wife has recently designed a plant meant to grow on the outside of ships. Highly resistant to radiation, vacuum and extreme temperatures, they are thick plans (I forget which flower she said she'd use) which grow off of dedicated hydrponic pipes attached to the ship's hull. She designed them solely with aesthetics in mind, but hypothetically they could be used to help with transfer of heat, generation of solar power (through extracting the plants' sugars into the hydrponics system), and additional radiation shielding (through the plants naturally bonding to heavy metals). She has not yet named the plant, as it is still in its development phase.
GreyBrother GreyBrother's picture
Re: Transgenic creatures at habitats
http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/2/21/001Bulbasaur.png This is what reminded me of the Flower Frogs.
Marek Krysiak Marek Krysiak's picture
Re: Transgenic creatures at habitats
Hm, interesting. Similarity to this pokemon creature was unintended. I was inspired by Fritziana goeldi http://www.terra-typica.ch/oldinterface/amphibia/hylidae.htm But hell - my description fits bulbasaur pretty well. Help! I'm reinventing pokemons!