[IN THE NEWS] Biologists Napping While Work Militarized

Scientists are often portrayed as the dupes of the military, or government conspiracies. Now a new editorial by Bioethicist Malcolm Dando states that biologists don't understand how their research is being weaponized. Read the full article to understand the very real ramifications.

Biologists napping while work militarized [Nature.com]

As researchers discover more agents that alter mental states, the Chemical Weapons Convention needs modification to help ensure that the life sciences are not used for hostile purposes, says Malcolm Dando.

At the 4th European Symposium on Non-Lethal Weapons in 2007, researchers from the Institute of Experimental Medicine and Charles University in Prague described the effects on macaque monkeys of combinations of drugs that produce a rapid loss of aggressive behaviour. They argued that the drugs could be "used to pacify aggressive people during ... terrorist attacks". The same researchers have also investigated methods of aerosol delivery to human volunteers.

Those who support the development of incapacitating agents often argue that using them in conflict situations stops people being killed. Historical evidence suggests otherwise. At the Nord-Ost siege, for instance, terrorists exposed to the fentanyl mixture were shot dead rather than arrested. Likewise, in Vietnam, the US military used vast quantities of CS gas — a 'non-lethal' riot-control agent — to increase the effectiveness of conventional weapons by flushing the Viet Cong out of their hiding places.

It's worth reading the entire editorial - full of facts of how life sciences has been perverted into blueprints for bioweaponry and just how some scientists either turn a blind eye to, or are complicit in the weaponization of their scientific discoveries.

However, in relation to the After the Bomb game setting, it offers a gold mine of possibilities. Whether it be mad scientists wanting to test their latest experiment on some rural locals, a war lord using the scientific discoveries of a duped scientist, or the Empire discovering some lost biological weapon from before the Crash, the possibilities are nearly limitless. As horrible, troublesome, or disturbing as they may be...

[IN THE NEWS] Bio-Hackers

It seems that we are already living in an age where people already have their own home bio-labs. Currently, it's a fringe group know as bio-hackers, creating the genetically-engineered bugs in makeshift gene laboratories for fun.

Okay, their not just creating germs and viruses, Boston bio-hacker Kay Aull (as seen in the attached video below) used her hacking skills to test her father and herself for the genetic disease haemochromatosis.



There's even a DIYbio forum where these guys share their 1337-skills. However, authorities are becoming increasingly concerned of the health and contamination risks of these at home bio hobbyists. DIYbio Founder Mac Cowell, in a Sky News said, "The main danger is if you're doing it on your own - the chemicals can be considered hazardous waste so you need to know how to dispose it."

So it will be no surprise when Erick's vision becomes a reality,

"It wasn't long before ordinary citizens could buy gene-scan attachments and software for their personal computers, before trading in gene patterns was common on the internet, and before 'virtual' breeding games let anyone experiment with mixing genes and chromosomes from different animals.

One of the most dramatic new products was called the EGG®, or Embryonic Genome Generator. Sold as "make your own mutant" kits, the first EGGs were used to grow transgenetic mice. EGGs suitable for growing dogs, cats and other pets quickly caught on. Within months, people all over the world were experimenting by mixing genes from different animals, and even from humans."

There are Bad Guys and then there are Villians

Some words of wisdom from Darths & Droids:

It's easy to throw monsters and Big Bads at your player's characters, adversaries who will simply do anything they can to kill them as quickly as possible. They'll use any dirty trick they can, any sneaky means at their disposal, any evil trap for the unwary PCs. They'll outgun them, hit them with their full strength, spare no expense, and hold nothing back. They'll kick the PCs when they're down. They'll be evil, nasty, rotten, wretched, and downright mean. They'll make false promises, break their word, engage in extortion, blackmail, torture, and slander. You won't be able to trust them as far as you could spit them.

Which is all well and good as far as it goes.

But if you want to make a villain, give them a sense of honour.

If you make your villains honourable in some small way, there will - inevitably - come a time when they can rub the heroes' faces in the fact that they have behaved in a way which is better than the PCs.

If your players care about their characters to any extent more than a hack-and-slasher, this is pure gold.

If you haven't heard of, or read Darths & Droids before now, take the time to start from the beginning and catch up. It's well worth the time.

[IN THE NEWS] Talking Mice?!

Talking mice? Well, maybe not today, but a team of German scientists, studing the evolution of speech and language, have created transgenic mice with the gene associated with human speech. [ScienceDirect.com]

IO9.com wrote: [link]

The researchers wanted to shed light on how humans developed our language capabilities, including the intricate thought and muscle coordination which allowed us as a species to develop complex language. One gene responsible for that development is the FOXP2 gene. Its absence leads to speech disorders, and its presence is an important component of human speech. Humans and Neanderthals are known to have a specific variation on the FOXP2 gene, though versions of it appear in other mammals and birds.

So while these experiments may not result in NIMH rodents, who knows what might happen if these mice are left to continue their line with the mutation?

[IN THE NEWS] Anti-Metal Virus (Bacteria)

I read an article today that got me thinking again about the Anti-Metal Virus Erick wrote about in Mutants Down Under Sourcebook back in '88:

LINK: Science Daily Article / io9 Article

Researchers are trying to find ways to use metal-extracting bacteria in a preemptive move to prevent struggles over natural resources.

In nature these deep sea bacteria extract metals from the sea water to form manganese or cobalt nodules and crust; the result of a process known as biomineralization. Scientists hope to harness this ability to mine the ocean floor for these and other precious elements.

It's not that far of a step to imagine that this process couldn't be perverted into some weaponized viral strain to produce the AMV that was mentioned in Mutant's Down Under. Does this send a shiver up anyone else's spine?

* * *

The first argument people inevitably make is the virus vs. bacteria argument, A virus can't affect metal! My response is that the AMV virus may not be a virus in the conventional sense. Alternatively, it may have just been given that name by some military or government entity because they like the sound of it and didn't care for the difference between virus and bacteria.

Maybe Anti-Metal Virus is actually a nano-virus. A swarm of nanomachines could concevably do what the the AMV is reportedly able to do, "metal artifacts immediately stop working and eventually rust into a useless blob." Perhaps, once the AMV comes into contact with a metal surface, the nanomacines penetrate the metal surface and start replecating (causing a localized EM field that paralizes any electronics and causes an accelerates the oxidizing process which first gums up the works and then eventally turns the oject into a "useless blob".

You could also just look at it from the ficticious (bends/ignores-the-laws-of-nature) perspective and take it as some futuristic/alien virus that actually can exist in a world populated by intelligent anthropomorphic mutant animals...

Your choice.