Chapter 14

What does Josh mean when he says that “pound for pound, lashani is much stronger than kanuf”?

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Both kanuf and lashani become incorporated into the genetic code of the organism and, thus, affect the development of each cell. In the case of muscle, kanuf decreases the tensile strength of muscle fibers, whereas lashani increases it. Stan is aware of this. Although he has been a large, muscular man all his life, he began to notice a decrease in his physical strength after the rebellion. As Josh says, Stan’s answer to this problem is to work out harder, although his scientists continue to search for other ways to offset the difference. As Josh explains in Chapter 24, this effect is magnified through successive generations because kanuf not only changes the muscle, but also weakens the genetic potential of that muscle as well. So, although Stan is heavily infected with kanuf, he remains much stronger than any living human since his muscles’ potential has not been successively weakened by generations of kanuf.