“Trouble With Lichen” by John Wyndham (1960)

“The farewell was beautiful.”

John Wyndham is something of a master of the creepy and the dystopian, whether dealing with sentient plants or alien children. I thought it was time to give him another go.

Two scientists have been working on a rare species of lichen, hoping to find some antibacterial properties in it that will help medical science. However, they both uncover something else in its chemistry instead: it can slow down the aging process. Deciding not to tell the other, each begins to p...