Slashdot Mirror
Viruses Enlisted as Nano-builders
Parsa writes "Nanotechnology is getting closer with genetically engineered
viruses grabbing zinc sulfide and arranging themselves into
highly organized structures. The
story is here at MSNBC.com."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
Nanotech rather frightens me... one malicious "strain" (for lack of a better term) could have massive consequences - and how would we defend against it?
Hey, I could get my cyberwear on the cheap, this way. Just walk into a lab and snort the research. Excellent!
This now concludes our broadcast day.
According to reports, Microsoft is already leading the field.
This question is of particular relevance to the American readers: do you think the nano system will eventually replace the feet, miles, etc you are using? If yes, then when?
Here I am unemployed, and they're giving high-tech jobs to viruses. Talk about a hit to the self-esteem.
Who moderates the meta-moderators?
Main Research Page
And yes, they have Movies, along with pretty pictures
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Isn't this how the Blob was born?
All technology has the potential for abuse and many have been abused for nefarious ends. The reality for us all is the same now as it was for Prometheus. Nothing ventured nothing gained. If you prefer Henry T. Ford..."No One Can Stop An Idea Whose Time Has Come!"
We must be vigilant but we must grow. Our world is dynamic not static and we need the long view to ensure the survivability of human kind. Sure we could destroy ourselves if we take the fire....but....we will most certainly perish if we play ostrich.
Fortune Favours The Bold!
pharphetch
With Bill Joy's alarmist speil about nanobots replicating out of control, this is hardly good PR for nanotech. I mean, viruses? We're talking about the most evil self-replicating things we can find, throw them in with nanotech and it doesn't exactly make a good association.
Now I'm not particularly worried about these custom virii infecting humans, particularly if they're using virii that don't infect multicellular organisms (like the very cool bacteriophage virus). I think the laymen will, however, and the last thing I want to see if governments restricting nanotech the way they are clamping down on biotech.
Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon
Virii have the ability to reproduce, and can do so without paying any royalties to the MPAA, the RIAA or the ASA.
Whatever will they do about this?
Can they GPL their technique, so they have a viral viral product?
If you continue to refer to them as "viruses", people will never support this sort of thing.
Its like the people who follow Bush on "cloning". Oh sure, some of them have legit religious opposition, but most blindly think that a "clone" is some sort of sci-fi copy of yourself, when in reality, a full grown human clone would be an identical twin, and a totally different person, except for genetic traits.
People are going to see virus and thing "little organism that kills" and we will never even get started.
I hate stupid people.
line up lots and lots of molecules to form me a delorean?
The film produced by this virus cannot be used in mass production yet. It is necessary to replace the virus with a conductive material in the finished product.
Interesting though. It seems we have a clear winner in the race between building smaller machines with smaller machines, or using biotech. Viruses are in!
Thanks for the link to msnbc.com in the writeup, I knew that site existed, but I had forgotten where it was over the last couple days. Much appreciated.
We've found that this is a reversible process, that you can completely disassemble and reassemble these films, which is interesting from a biotechnology aspect," So you can build something, and then have it come apart? Let's say you use this technique to build a chip that goes into a popular motherboard. Then you combine it with someone with waaaaay too much time. Next thing you know script kiddies aren't just threatening to melt your box, they really are! :)
Checkout their people page, and scroll to the bottom for pictures of some hectic research activity. These biochemists....
This story disgusts me. It's wrong for Nike and Adidas to enslave living organisms in countries such as Africa and Bangkok but it's okay for American scientists to do it? Hell, Nike and Adidas even pay their living organisms 50 cents an hour.
I say that we should negotiate labor rights with these creatures, let them have a 15 minutes 'osmosis break' every 4 hours, give them a good pay, and treat them with the respect they deserve!
mogorific carpentry experiments
If the make nanotubes, what happens when they get loose?
Doc: "Billy, you've got nanitis, you need to stay away from pregnant women and flash photography."
Billy: "Flash photography? You're kidding right?"
Doc: "You don't have to, but don't blame me if you explode."
Maybe that idea some indian tribes used to have about it bad to get your picture taken was right. Hey! There's a reporter here at my house to put me in the paper for this insight. You need a photograph for the front page? OK, what harm could it do? Wait... Noooooooo.........
*KABOOM*
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Yeah, that will change the image of viruses ;)
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
If so, it it out of line to say that nanites have crossed the boundary from S.F. and "wouldn't it be cool?" and into reality?
Now... they may not be general-purpose; like the first hard-wired digital computers, the structures they produce may be limited and not of immediate practical purpose, but it seems to me that these GM virues actually are nanites, and should be treated as such.
These are fearful times we live in. I hope our new friends like us :/
First, nothing begins if not opening
This story reminds me of article I read in Scientific American that says that Virus are being developed to be super-effecive anti-bacterial Agents that can target only a strain or two of bacteria.
It is only natural that we are using the simpilist form of life on earth to help us build technology, as viruses are (deadly) efficient. But when we start to inject viruses into humans, we need to modify them so they die soon and cannot reproduce.
None the less this could be a major development in world of Technology.
Medevo
If they limited their attacks to bacteria, we could still be in serious trouble. The entire ecosystem depends on bacteria. Without bacteria there is no "dust to dust." On a more personal level, the "good" bacteria in your innards don't provide nutrients (that I know of, being an ignorant techie, not a scientist), but they do other things for you like keep their nasty cousins from eating you alive. We'd also be in trouble without the cyanobacteria ("blue-green algae").
Recently, a friend that works at a prestigious laboratory noted that they saw a very strange pattern of xenon atoms on top of a palladium plate. Assuming that it was a joke perpetrated by a coworker, it was never reported. While mostly illegible, he was able to make out several words.
"We not slaves, ugly bags of mostly water."
Both of us were perplexed, if it was a joke, we didn't get it.
The viruses formed a film that was strong enough to be handled with forceps. The organization of the film suggests to me that it would make an excellent substrate for a conventional hard drive or even solid state mass storage.
The chances of someone making a virus capable of killing all bacteria....the odds against it are so astronomical its not even funny. The natural variation in the bacterial community makes all us multi-cellular organisms look like a JOKE. I see people talking about the possibility of us wiping out certain species (big carnivores especially) and yes, its there, they (big cats, sharks, etc.) have been decimated by humans inpact already, leading to geneticly weak (undiverse) communities, but there's not a damn thing would could ever make that would kill all bacteria.
For those of you Slashdotters reading this and wondering how you control a group of viruses and make sure that they don't run rampant, you might be interested in this article on a DNA computer. The software, hardware, everything is made of biological material.
Simply use the virus's DNA as part of the computer and manipulate it to do whatever you want. It's small and effective, as far as I can see.
Marketing possibilities are also opening up. Can't you just envision Intel start making these viruses and/or DNA computers, show someone swallowing a test tube full of 'em on a commercial, and have him wear a shirt, "Intel Inside"? Horrible humour, I know, but so was a lot of the Blue Man Group commercials after the first two.
Anonymous Coward: (n.) 1. nerd at school or library. 2. karmawhore in training. 3. embarrased prep.
In late breaking news, the terrible scourge of nanotechnology has come to bear upon humanity. Even now, our governments are under attack from microscopic organisms which mean to destroy us. May God help us all.
*reads a piece of paper just passed to him*
And in other news, let me be the first to welcome our new Nanite Overlords.
Indeed, I may be remembering incorrectly, but weren't there bacteria found in space (Or on a crashed bit o' rock)?
At any rate, what with the amount of diversity and adaptability of bacteria, I think even if the Earth exploded into small cubes, suitable for stewing, that we still wouldn't be rid of bacteria.
very cooooool
When I first read the title, I thought that we were dealing with another computer virus like Klez. Who wants a computer virus building hostile nanotechnology in their computers that crashes them or spies on them? (I know this is not possible today. This is meant to be a joke.)
The title should have use the word "Biological" in front of "Viruses", considering that this board is Slashdot, a board that mainly deals with computer stuff.
I don't really see how this is fundamentally a novel concept...I mean viruses and bacteria have been operating on these scales forever, they've been manipulated for decades... It is interesting to hear that they're being used in a manner not dissimilar to earlier self-assembly techniques.
The line about disassembly is interesting, though. If this is self-dissasembly and reassembly, wow, that makes for some interesting possibilities. Kind of like a ship-in-a-bottle, you could get devices into places with no route for the whole object...does your bladder need repair? Stick a catheter in, pump in whatever solution the nanotech-viruses need to operate, pump in the viruses, and let them build the surgical tools, then take them apart when they're done. Better than laproscopy (sp?), we could be talking about surgery through a syringe.
I'm sure this could also be used for evil, as well...
If a bite from genetic-engineered spider makes that guy did what he did,
just imagine what you can do if you get infected by this virus...
I remember an old 1968 or 1969 Marvel comic either Fantastic Four or Iron Man comic where the main character had to build a device and uses conducting microbes, program to move to a certain place and die. This created the layout of this device to activate some gateway. It may have been the Fantastic Four with help from Tony Stark.
As if most people weren't already scared to open the case of their computers... now they'll think that they'll not only break it, but that they'll get sick too.
This may actually make tech support easier, if more morons were afraid to pop open the case.
For instance:
Distance: nanofurlongs (10^-9 furlongs, or 10^-8 chains)
Liquid measure: nanohogshead (2*10^-9 liquid barrels)
Quantity: nanogross (1.44*10^-7)
Weight: nanostone (1.4*10^-8 U.K. pounds)
also used:
1 nanoscruple = 2*10^-10 grains (or 2 Ånggrains)
1 nanodram = 3.2*10^-10 grains
1 nanogill = 2.5*10^-10 nanopints
1 nanoacre = 1.6*10^-7 nanosquare rods
"Millions of viruses in solution can line up and stack themselves into layers, creating a material that flows like a liquid but maintains an internal pattern. By changing the solution?s concentration or applying a magnetic field, scientists can force new patterns and create different liquid crystal structures."
Does this not sound like Terminator 2 to anyone?? Liquid robots anyone? Very cool concept, but also slightly scary.
"Actually, the comensual bacteria in our guts do produce most of the vitamin-K..."
Thanks for this piece of knowledge. Now I am a slightly less ignorant techie.
As for the other comment by the Anonymous Coward, I wasn't implying some virus or nano would kill ALL bacteria. If it hit even one strain, depending on which species, it's conceivable that the result might be ecologically troublesome.
Is it possible that she hasn't learned of the word "width"? Is our educational system in such God-awful shape that such things as this could happen?
Enby in Waltham
Lets hope we dont end up having to feed our CCD sensors in the future, you know, "Pick up some Purina CCD Chow...!"
You wanna talk about nano stuff, you gotta get the word from Steve Gibson. He's the only guy what knows about Micromolecular Prophylactic Filter Technology and stuff like that.
radsoft.net