Biology as Clinical Practice — Biology as Inscription — Biological Transmutation-Adaptation

In this short fiction, the narrator partakes in a synthetic fecal microbial transplant called SynGut, where colonies of gut microbes are curated and selected for a particular gut profile and disease type. She has not anticipated the protracted time commitment and psychological drain involved with the trial. Things turn out strangely, as the treatments do not seem to work. She leaves the program. Soon after, our protagonist finds that she has newfound tastes and powers, giving her a novel ability to ingest decomposing foods. She recognizes her affinity with vultures and other scavenger animals, as her adapted digestion system is better suited for the limited food sources available to human populations of her time. The story attempts to move from the notion of hierarchical clinic biology and medical research into a realm of biological inscription on/in the body, and biological transmutation and adaptation as radical resistance and speculative rewriting of biology.