Atoms are the big idea,
but molecules explain

Lets start with ideas—fruit flies and house flies. The big idea about each is that they are a nuisance. My Venus flytrap, Vagigi, sits under a light near the kitchen sink. The idea about her is that she is useful because she catches flies and eats them.

The other day I left a half lemon facedown on the counter near Vagigi. In just minutes, fruit flies began to assemble. Checking back several hours later, I saw they had made little doorways in the lemon which had turned into a Quonset hut.

In the evening the insects lay scattered around the hut. I first thought they were dead, but soon detected movement. Some of them were pairing up and walking off together while others ambled around the building or just approached each other and bumped heads in what was surely a greeting. Twenty or so lay on their bellies atop the hut, legs and wings spread to the lamp heat. The entire thing looked like an aerial shot of a Mash unit on an easy afternoon.

In this same day, I watched a house fly land on a table, another lit on top of it, and they began to have intercourse. I had expected a quick union, but after 30 seconds they were still glued to the task. Five minutes went by, then ten; apparently Bolero was not on their headsets. Is it possible those minutes of enjoyment inside bodies this small translate into eons of sexual pleasure in fly time?

I want to know more about atoms and molecules, so next time we’ll take on the topics of trees and forests.