Symbols In Ascension Martin MacInnes

The Algae Symbol in In Ascension: From Food to Symbiotic Transformation

What Algae Literally Is in the Novel

In In Ascension, algae is a real, cultivated organism—primarily a strain of green microalgae—that Leigh Hasenbosch develops at ICORS in California. She works on optimising its growth for long-duration space missions. The algae is designed to serve as a renewable food source, an oxygen producer, and a potential building material. Aboard the spacecraft Nereus, the algae is grown in a dedicated garden in pouches and containers, using recycled water and nutrients from the crew’s waste. The novel emphasises its practical biology: it contains DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) that supports brain function, and its rapid reproduction is essential for survival when food stocks run low.

Where Algae Recurs

Algae appears in three major phases:

  • Development on Earth (Chapter 2: Datura): Leigh’s team trials four strains, adjusting containers and light distribution to maximise yield. Uria envisions “auto-ships” grown from organic algal materials, and the mission payload includes algae as a “genetic heritage” carrying early life.
  • Hypergrowth aboard Nereus (Chapter 4: Nereus): Once in space, the algae grows far faster than expected—an “unprecedented hypergrowth” that Leigh cautiously records. The crew consumes it as a primary food source after discovering a shortfall. Tyler develops a special affinity, calling the process “symbiotic”.
  • Final descent (Chapter 5: Ascension): After the capsule returns to a submerged Earth, the algae has spread everywhere inside: “a spread of grass over the base and the wall panels attaching to the ceiling”. It grows “inside the blood” of the dead crewmates K and Tyler, and green shoots reach through their suits. Leigh herself accepts her body as part of this cycle.

Additionally, Helena finds a cottage on Ascension Island stocked with marine microbiology books, suggesting Leigh’s earlier research on algae and the ocean.

How the Meaning of Algae Changes

Initially, algae is a human‑controlled resource—a tool for sustaining life in space, managed by Leigh’s scientific expertise. The crew treats it as a supplement, a scientific achievement, and a reminder of Earth.

During hypergrowth, algae begins to assert its own agency. Tyler remarks, “We’re farming it, but it’s farming us too.” The crop grows beyond expectations, forcing the crew to rely on it entirely. The line between eater and eaten blurs.

In the final chapter, algae becomes a symbol of radical symbiosis and transformation. It consumes the bodies of Leigh’s companions, yet it also sustains her. Leigh no longer sees it as separate: she is “a part of this too”. When she dives into the ocean, she merges with a “life-filled” water, embracing the circularity of life and death. Algae no longer represents control or subsistence; it embodies the dissolution of human autonomy into a larger, ancient biological cycle.

Character Connections

  • Leigh Hasenbosch: Her lifelong connection to water—from her near‑drowning as a child to her work in marine microbiology—makes algae a natural extension of her identity. She experiences the algae’s growth as both scientific and personal, culminating in her acceptance of being “intermediate in this” flux.
  • Tyler: He recovers from a severe arm wound by spending time in the garden, believing the algae helped him heal. He sees the relationship as mutual: the algae feeds on his waste; he feels “renewing” in its presence.
  • Uria: The ICORS director champions algae as a cornerstone of future space colonies. She pushes its biological and symbolic potential, viewing the mission as a kind of organic “response” to the extraterrestrial listener.
  • Helena: Though she does not work with the algae directly, her discovery of Leigh’s marine microbiology library on Ascension Island links her to her sister’s obsession with aquatic life.

Theme Connections

  • Symbiosis and Transformation: Algae embodies the novel’s central idea that life exists only through interdependence. Leigh’s final dive literalises this theme.
  • Environmental Collapse and Circularity: Algae recycles waste and nutrients, echoing the drowned Earth’s ecological cycles. The “green fuzz” that fills the capsule mirrors the planet’s regreening after submersion.
  • Oceanic versus Cosmic Exploration: Algae links the deep‑sea vents of the Endeavour mission to space. It is both an oceanic organism and a tool for cosmic travel, bridging water and vacuum.
  • Isolation and Connection: The algae garden becomes a communal space on Nereus, fostering connection among the crew. In the end, algae connects Leigh to the biosphere she left behind.
  • Family Trauma and Memory: Leigh’s childhood memory of being lifted by her father and her later near‑drowning are mirrored in her sensory immersion in algae‑filled water. The briny smell of the crop “flooded back” her past.

Study Questions with Answers

1. What causes the hypergrowth of algae aboard Nereus, and why does Leigh avoid reporting the full data set?

The hypergrowth may result from the ship’s acceleration, the altered light environment, or a gene spliced from extremophiles found during the Endeavour expedition. Leigh speculates a combination of factors creates a “growth cascade.” She deliberately downplays the findings in her report because “once word of this reached the mission’s investors, further trials would be prepared” and she wants time to “sift through everything more carefully” before making authoritative claims. This restraint shows her tension between scientific caution and the pressure to deliver groundbreaking results.

2. How does Tyler’s understanding of his relationship with the algae change during the mission?

Initially, Tyler is wary: he jokes that the algae is “feeding on us, in a sense.” After his arm wound, he spends time in the garden and feels “renewing” there, using the word “symbiotic” to describe the interaction. He grows as the algae grows. By the end, he accepts that his body has become part of the crop, with “green shoots over EVAs” and “Carbs, proteins, fatty acids eaten as the green grows.” His shift from fear to acceptance mirrors the novel’s broader move from human control to ecological participation.

3. In the final scene, Leigh says “I am a part of this too.” What does she mean by this, and how does algae relate to the novel’s idea of “circularity”?

Leigh means that her body, like the algae and the dead crew, is part of a cycle of consumption and regeneration. She observes that “a body must eat itself” and that the algae consumes and is consumed. This ties to the novel’s earlier mention that “life is circular, atemporal. Every cell an instance of time travel.” Algae literalises that circularity: it recycles waste, creates oxygen from CO₂, and in the final capsule it “reaches out from inside” the bodies, blurring the boundary between organism and food. Leigh’s dive into the ocean completes the circle as she joins the “flux” of life and death.

4. How does the algae symbol connect Leigh’s work in space to her childhood trauma in Rotterdam?

Leigh’s childhood near‑drowning in the Nieuwe Maas river—and her flashback to her father lifting her violently—are both water‑related traumas. Algae, as an aquatic organism, triggers these memories. When she first harvests the crop, “releasing a briny sea smell, it all flooded back” to her awakening in the river. Later, in the flooded capsule, the algae‑filled water becomes a strange repetition of that childhood submersion. This time, however, Leigh does not fight the water; she dives into it willingly, transforming a traumatic experience into an ecstatic merging. Algae thus mediates her journey from victim of water to participant in its life.