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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."
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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
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.
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").
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.