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Cockroaches Daubed With Yeast As WMD Sensors?
Our Man In Redmond writes "OK, yeah, it sounds weird, but it just might work. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have come up with the idea of attaching genetically-modified yeast to the back of a cockroach - or a cockroach-sized robot - and using the yeast to detect chemical or biological agents. The story's in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer. They point out some other possible nifty uses for the yeast-based technology, like detecting diseases by having a patient blow on a piece of paper 'printed' with the yeast."
Fear not, terrorists, I've got your solution! Just make your WMD in really, really, really bright laboratories! Problem solved!
... what? Crap, I'm sorry ... gotta go ... some nice men in suits are here and need to talk about some "Patriot Act" or something ... I'll see you in about 20, I guess ...
*mumble mumble*
topreacher@signature.slashdot.org 1% rm -rf sig
1) Cockroaches fail to find evidence of WMDs.
2) Government asserts non-cooperation on part of regime under inspection with cockroaches conducting said inspections.
3) ???
4) Democracy!
That's not funny. I am one of the rare few men who have had the dubious honor of getting a yeast infection. Fortunately, I found out that I just needed to make some changes in my diet to counteract the negative effects of antibiotics I'd takedn over the years. Antibiotics can do a lot of damage to the body's natural defenses (secndary immune system) unless you are knowledgable enough to supplement your diet with probiotics as far apart from the antibiotics as possible. All I can say is that male yeast infection is probably akin to scorching your foreskin (or in my case the corona since I'm circumcised) with a curling iron. All the way around... first it starts as an incessant itch and within hours it blows up into a fullblown set of ulcerated skin. Almost made me think I had herpes except there weren't any blisters. So.. don't take yeast lightly. It's a nasty and very dangerous substance.
Yeah, I know one "nifty" technology based on yeast: it's called "beer" and has been around for thousands of years. Hoooray for yeast! ;-)
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
I suggest cockroach + robot = "cockrobot"
As an added benefit: "I, for one, welcome our new cockrobot overlords" has a nice ring to it.
Has become the new "Star Wars" angle for research. Looking for new Funding ? Unsure that it will get approved ? Well see how it could possibly be applied to WMD, it doesn't have to be sensible, it just has to be enough to get the funding. After all there are people of billions of dollars out there who can't find WMD, so your research not doing it either won't change anything.
This is for the diagnosis of illnesses, pure and simple. And at 2am in a bar when the funding review was at 10am the researchers had an idea.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Young bachelor to FBI agent: "That's not a biological weapons lab, man; that's my kitchen!
Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
Weapons of mass destruction. Biological outbreaks of plague. Medical sensors. Bah.
There is one purpose for which yeast, and yeast research, should be put. Beer. Better beer. Beer that tastes great, but is less filling. Beer that I can drink until snookered, then wake up from the next day, hangover free.
Beer.
Any questions?
OK this is cool You send the coachroaches out into an area where there is WMD. How do you check the yeast? Have the coachroacges on a really long leash? :)
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Patient blows.
Doctor: "Ehmmm. You have herpes."
Patient: "What? One blow, and you say I have herpes?"
And when you get them back you can use them to make Vegemite
So, the USA not just destroys Iraqi infrastructure to stone age, they now want to flood the ruins with yeast-infected cockroaches?
No limits to human cruelty..
Lisp is the Tengwar of programming languages.
So if they are still alive when all humans are gone, we'll know it was a really, really good weapon. What? Oh...
Money for nothing, pix for free
.. welcome our new bread-making anthrax-detecting apocalypse-surviving insect overlords.
The discussion on the yeast in the story seems like the easy part (IANABC-I am not a Biologist-Chemist), but making a cockroach that has enough power, is controllable (either remotely or through AI), and is actually useful would be the hard part.
The civilized world has more to fear from the development of technology like this than the terrorists do. A cockroach is less of a threat to a terrorist hiding in a cave (they can find a new cave or have a pet snake to eat the cockroaches), verses nations that have nuclear powerplants, mass transit systems, and airplanes that could fall victim to a terrorist controlled cockroach-bots that likes to munch on wires/circuit boards and fuel lines.
Development of miniature cockroach robots will initially be by First World nations, but the technology will proliferate much easier than nuclear capability ever did. It would be easier to hide a cockroach-bot program than a nuclear program, and a cockroach-bot will be more useful.
Won't the bad guys just buy a few cans of pyrethrin lacquer (the stuff you spray around ant holes). "I'm sorry, Mrs. Roach, but your husband is missing presumed dead. He crawled for what he believed in."
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
... that it's a very bad idea to mix anything "genetically modified" and "cockroach"... Mimic anyone ? Am I the only one that envisions frothing swarms of sentient, mansized, flesh eating, multiplying-at-the-rate-of-yeast-bacteriae cockroaches surging out of Manhattans' manholes ?
On a brighter note, it could also spawn a new breed of crunchy luxury beer called "Skuttlebrau"
... just have a cockroach with a tiny little camera strapped to its back go in behind the yeast roach.
i'll take 10,000 of those "monkeys" you talk about above 1 self-important pompous arrogant windbag like yourself
your arrogant attitude and dim consideration of your fellow human being is part of the problem, not the solution
you are not better educated about the problems of the world, you are merely drowning in self-righteous teenage-level cynicism about the world
you're actually a dime a dozen, and you suck
get back to us when you grow up, teenager
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Sorry, but at this point, the idea to 'infest' a country with cockroaches because they're suspected of harboring WMDs sounds like little more than a reaaally big contract for the Orkin Man.
You are in a little twisting maze of passages, all different. You're screwed.