From: jsbell@acs.ucalgary.ca (Joshua Bell)
Subject: Re: Inconsistencies re: Thread
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 93 17:19:34 GMT
Organization: The University of Calgary, Alberta

In article <1iam6vINNpp7@gap.caltech.edu> julius@cco.caltech.edu (julius yang) writes:
>>2. What is thread?:

Dragonsdawn does a fairly detailed analysis of the Thread stage
of the organism. ATWOP furthers this into an analysis if the
spore stage.

>The DLG, if remember aright, claims Thread to be some sort of organism about
>ninety feet long or so that erupts out of big spore balls which periodically
>rain down on Pern.  The balls come from the Red Star, which passes through
>the Oort cloud on its orbit.  Whether the Threadballs are native to the 
>Oort or the Red Star, they apparently infest both places.  The balls, I
>assume, are dragged from the Oort by the Red Star and follow in its orbit,
>as there is NO WAY Pern's gravitical attraction could pull off Thread from
>the surface of the Red Star.

In ATWOP (disclaimer - the 'facts' are observations of Aivas, so
Anne can change them at any time) the Thread organism is
specifically described as coming from the Oort Cloud.

(Astronomically speaking, the Kupier belt makes a LOT more sense
as a source for the Thread, otherwise the Red Star needs an orbit
of ~5 million years. Since the Oort cloud is the general term,
and Anne's not up on real astronomy, I'll let it slip by.)

There is a 'halo' or cloud of Thread spores in orbit around the
Red Star, akin to a comet's coma of gas and dust. There is also a
tail of cometary matter that gets dragged into the system, and
jostled around by the various planets. Its likely the
intersection of this tail with Pern's orbit that is the source of
the Threadfall patterns.

>As for what Thread actually is, I have absolutely no clue.  Earth biology
>obviously breaks down here--the only thing that can eat forests that fast
>would be living tubes of acid.  Heck, that sounds good, let's call it that.
>If we demand Thread to be carbon-based, I'd say it virtually transmutes
>organic material into Thread material via some incredibly fast chemical
>reaction.

In Dragonsdawn, they observe it to be immensely long chains of
proteins. If you imagine some enzyme that breaks down organic
molecules (damn, where'd those two years of biochem go when you
need 'em), string billions together, and provide it with thermal
energy, it could sear quite handily through organics, gaining raw
materials. The proteins could be self-replicating. This actually
makes sense: RNA may be easier to make self-reproducing, but
there may not be enough energy in a cometary belt to get RNA
reactions going. Proteins are a fair bit hardier, albiet bulkier.
As seen in ATWOP, the Thread spores are very messy, with
macroscopic parasites and large chromasomal material.

Joshua
|         A shimmering net undulating like an infinite borealis.             |
|                                                  - Chapterhouse: Dune      |
|                                                                            |
| jsbell@acs.ucalgary.ca  Academic Computing Services, University of Calgary |
Newsgroups: alt.fan.pern
From: chris@keris.demon.co.uk (Chris Croughton)