The process is not practised to any extent , but is a curious example of a catalectic action started by the impact of light

out of something more than forty pupils, […]thirty-five were, in one way or another, related to him. This illustrates pretty well the consanguined character of the district.

Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.

Titled “Picture of Fate: I Am but a Fisherman Who Angles in the Darkness of His Mind,” the Murakami is dominated by the exotic karajishi, or “China-lion,” who guards the threshold of Japanese Buddhist temples and is a frequent subject of Chinese and Japanese artists.