How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
But Deryn's favorite lectures were when the boffins explained natural philosophy. How old Darwin had figured out how to weave new species from the old, pulling out the tiny threads of life and tangling them together under a microscope. How evolution had squeezed a copy of Deryn's own life chain into every cell of her body. How umpteen different beasties made up the Leviathan—from the microscopic hydrogen-farting bacteria in its belly to the great harnessed whale. How the airship's creatures, like the rest of Nature, were always struggling among themselves in messy, snarling equilibrium. (11.19)
Just so we're clear, this is one part of the book that puts the fiction in historical fiction. Darwin did not discover DNA, though he did do quite a bit of work on the idea of ecosystems in balance—and sadly, Darwin didn't discover a way to grow new animals in eggs, either. That would have been cool though, which is why it makes a good story.
Quote #5
In summer the fields passing beneath the airship were full of flowers, each containing a tiny squick of nectar. The bees gathered that nectar and distilled it into honey, and then the bacteria in the airbeast's gut gobbled that up and farted hydrogen. It was a typical boffin strategy—no point in creating a new system when you could borrow one already fine-tuned by evolution. (19.24)
Yeah, there's a lot of talk about the importance of farting to the Leviathan's ecosystem. We recommend you don't try this with your biology teacher. Seriously though, there's an important point here about using what already works rather than constantly trying to invent something new.
Quote #6
Dr. Barlow released her chin, giving a shrug. "Well, I'm sure you're not the first boy to come into the service a bit young. Your secret is safe with me." She handed back the rigging knife. "You see, my grandfather's true realization was this: If you remove one element—the cats, the mice, the bees, the flowers—the entire web is disrupted. An archduke and his wife are murdered, and all of Europe goes to war. A missing piece can be very bad for the puzzle, whether in the natural world, or politics, or here in the belly of an airship. You seem like a fine crewman, Mr. Sharp. I'd hate to lose you." (19.53)
And here it is: a big thematic link between two parts of our story. The idea, in both politics and in nature, is that we can never just adjust one element because moving one thing will always affect others. It's the old domino effect.