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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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Look up the 'Gray Goo problem' on Google, there's plenty of discussion on this.
According to reports, Microsoft is already leading the field.
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"
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
Like missiles can shoot down other missiles and Jedis can duel other Jedis, Nanobots can destroy other nanobots.
In The Future people might have their natural immune system and a Nanobot immune system to go with it.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
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.
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.
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
While many science fiction writers have already painted in detail various doomsday scenarios with regards to nanotech gone out of control, and while it's possible that once they perfect this specific technology, it may very well go out of control, I think the fear of direct infection from these viruses is alarmist. These viruses are specifically bacteriophages, and so far, no bacteriophage has been known to also infect eukaryotic cells. Admittedly, it's probably not impossible, but it's probably the least of our worries.
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 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.
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...
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
"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.
Lets hope we dont end up having to feed our CCD sensors in the future, you know, "Pick up some Purina CCD Chow...!"
It would be interesting if Mars once held life that invented Nanotech virus that went rampantly out of control and devoured the world. Leaving the planet exhausted of resources, and covered with nanobots that over the millions of years decayed into red dust.
The martians could have also had a war with the planet that is currently the asteroid belt and the decisive victory was a planet destroying weapon.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html