Lieserl

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Template:Unsourced Lieserl is the title of the fifth story in Stephen Baxter's science fiction anthology Vacuum Diagrams. It was originally published in Interzone in 1993.

Set in A.D. 3951, it documents the title character's life as a genetically engineered child who ages rapidly enough to dive into the Sun and record its decay, being caused by an unidentified outside source, from a human perspective. Lieserl, an AI form exploring the interior of the Sun for five million years. She discovers dark matter based life, which she names photino birds. These birds gradually drain the energy from the core of a star, ending fusion and causing premature aging into a stable red giant—the birds' preferred habitat, as it has no risk of going supernova and destroying them.

Probably from "Lieserl," the name of Albert Einstein and Mileva Maric's illegitimate first--and only female--child, who mysteriously disappeared after the age of two, never to be mentioned by the couple again. Scholars generally agree that Lieserl suffered from the effects of scarlet fever, may have been born mentally challenged, and--because of the scandal and trying circumstances--was either adopted out or hidden behind the doors of Mileva's relatives in Serbia. The consensus is that Lieserl died soon after her second birthday, although some adult women did come forward claiming to be the missing girl now grown.