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Subject: Weaponized Synthetic Biology
Replies: 12 Views: 335

shadow27 23.06.17 - 04:54am
It sounds more like something from a Matthew Reilly book than real life. But programmable bioweapons are coming and scientists are warning that they could be just as, if not more deadly than nuclear weapons.
The weapons use something known as synthetic biology, which is a bit like genetic engineering on steroids. Basically, it involves reprogramming genes to do specific things. Already scientists are working to use synthetic biology to create plants that can sniff out drugs at airports. * +

shadow27 23.06.17 - 04:55am
But a panel of academic experts at the New America Future of War conference overnight have warned that weapons made using synthetic biology could be as big of a problem as nuclear weapons were in the past.
''The biologically-based conflicts of the future would be wild by comparison: Ill wipe out your food supply, Ill wipe out your water, Ill wipe out your ability to reproduce, Ill wipe out your ability for your gene line to advance.'' said Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University. * +

shadow27 23.06.17 - 05:00am
The United States equivalent of Australias defence technology research agency DSTO, DARPA has been researching the possibility to use synthetic biology for warfare for years, and even started a dedicated division in 2014 called the Biological Technologies Office.
Their research has been nothing less than terrifying.
In 2011, DARPA began investing money into a project called BioDesign. Its goal was to create a synthetic organism that can live forever, or if need be, killed off with the flick of a molecular switch. These organisms can then be used to do whatever their creators want them to, or as DARPA puts it, ''produce the intended biological effect.'' * +

sisfreak2017 23.06.17 - 05:12am
i dont like all this fking around with things playing god changing living things granted sone good things get discovered and sure they'll say they have safeguards but nature will always find a way (Tvirus.gif) * +

shadow27 23.06.17 - 05:15am
For as long as life on Earth has existed, all of it has been made up of only four letters. DNA has been written in just those four letters G, T, C and A which together create the code that underlies every living thing ever known.
That's until now. Scientists have announced that they have created living organisms using an expanded genetic code. That could in turn lead to the creation of entirely new lifeforms, using combinations of DNA that couldn't possibly have existed before. * +

shadow27 23.06.17 - 05:16am
Two researchers created a bacterium that not only uses the four natural bases, but also uses a pair of synthetic ones known as X and Y. In doing so, the researchers say that they have been able to ''lay the foundation for achieving the central goal of synthetic biology: the creation of new life forms and functions''. * +

shadow27 23.06.17 - 05:19am
I'm just waiting for them to make some really fu*ked up Giger style critter that lives in your gut and then *pop* you're the mother to a happy bouncing baby xenomorph. Someone is going to do it, it's too easy. * +

cleancut 23.06.17 - 05:30am
Bit early in the AM for this isn't it? * +

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