{"id":1485,"date":"2015-11-25T18:02:04","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T18:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/?p=1485"},"modified":"2015-11-25T15:09:15","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T15:09:15","slug":"the-story-behind-the-story-claimed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/2015\/11\/25\/the-story-behind-the-story-claimed\/","title":{"rendered":"The story behind the story: Claimed"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, Futures<\/a> is very pleased to bring\u00a0you\u00a0Claimed<\/a><\/em>, the first published story by S J\u00a0Rosenstein. By day she works\u00a0as a research scientist, by night\u00a0you can catch up with her thoughts\u00a0on her blog<\/a>. Here, she reveals what inspired her tale \u2014 as ever, it pays to read the story first<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Writing Claimed<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We’ve all had that moment when you come across something you can’t quite believe \u2014\u00a0learning how big the Universe really is, meeting someone so incredible you want to spend the rest of your life with them, catching your first glimpse of Donald Trump\u2019s hair. Of course, sometimes these things are unbelievable because they\u2019re not real. But other times, the initial shock is overcome by a creeping feeling of unease. If you accept this idea, it means rethinking everything<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And what better vector to pass on an idea than a parasite? I’ve been fascinated by the potential for parasites to control their hosts ever since I was introduced to Leucochloridium paradoxum<\/em> by David Attenborough’s Trials of Life<\/a><\/em>. The distended, pulsating eyestalks were horrifying, but what was worse to see the snail slowly climb up and up a stalk of grass until it became prey. \u00a0As for humans, our immune system seems to be optimised to reject parasites<\/a>. Yet many people still live with them, and there\u2019s evidence that their presence may change<\/a> our behaviour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So if we were invaded by aliens I like to think that the shiny spaceships and exotic appearance would just be a distraction. The real invasion would be going on quietly, behind the scenes, changing us into something new. And if I spotted it, I would definitely flee to Hawaii, and celebrate the apocalypse with a Pi\u00f1a Colada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, Futures is very pleased to bring\u00a0you\u00a0Claimed, the first published story by S J\u00a0Rosenstein. By day she works\u00a0as a research scientist, by night\u00a0you can catch up with her thoughts\u00a0on her blog. Here, she reveals what inspired her tale \u2014 as ever, it pays to read the story first.  Read more<\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/futureconditional\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}