Strange Worms Are Taking Their Place on Your Family Tree

Just before the atomic bomb drops on Hiroshima, the land below appears smooth as glass. The bomb falls on a grid of streets aligned between lazy rivers. In footage from 1945, the city’s exceptional stillness seems to give the explosion oxygen. The calm before the storm is a standard trope for movie directors. Without a prior silence, there is no “KaBoom!” Although they’d never admit it, scientists fall into the same storytelling trap. There’s no better way to emphasize a phenomenon.

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