ATROPHIA

With every passing day science advances. Medicine finds new ways to astound and amaze us and scientists fight, valiantly, to stay ahead of the antibiotic-resistant strains of this disease or that; they struggle to keep their head above water while Mother Nature pumps out evolution after evolution and the natural world just keeps on trucking while the industrial one begins to crumble. At first it's just the edges, flaking away so slowly that no one notices - but then it comes faster, and faster still. It begins with a simple news bulletin:

Three confirmed cases of Mad Cow Disease tracked to processing factory in Calvert City, Montana.