I have good news and bad news. The good news is that some incredible things are happening in space this week:
Cassini, which has been orbiting Saturn since July 4th, 2004, released the European Space Agency's probe
Huygens on Christmas Eve. It will enter the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan tomorrow and, if all goes well, report from the surface for an hour or two.
Titan is one of the most mysterious worlds in the Solar System. Hubble has given us tantalizing glimpses of the smog shrouded world which fascinates scientists because it may resemble the early Earth and Cassini has given us our best views yet. Huygens may finally lift the veil on this frozen, nearly Mars-sized moon. NYT article here. Registration required.
NASA also launched a mission to get really up close and personal with a comet.
The bad news is actually one of those double edged things that science and technology are so good at giving the world. Read on below the fold.
According to the
NYT:
Researchers have made an unexpectedly sudden advance in synthesizing long molecules of DNA, bringing them closer to the goal of redesigning genes and programming cells to make pharmaceuticals.
But the success also puts within reach the manufacture of small genomes, such as those of viruses and perhaps certain bacteria. Some biologists fear that the technique might be used to make the genome of the smallpox virus, one of the few pathogens that cannot easily be collected from the wild.
The promise of this technique is huge but then so are the dangers. New vaccines and bespoke drugs are just the beginning of what this advance has to offer.
On the other hand, the ability to make smallpox from scratch and the resulting threat from bio-terrorists is chilling. However, what I found really scary, is that this technique is not necessarily limited to existing genomes and DNA. There is no reason why it could not be used to build entirely new viruses with a virulence that would make smallpox seem like the common cold.
All existing (naturally occurring) pathogens, even really nasty ones like smallpox and ebola have severe constraints to their virulence precisely because they have evolved (there's that word again.) I refer you to William McNeil's excellent book Plagues and Peoples and Jared Diamond's equally fabulous Guns, Germs and Steel for deeper discussions of how pathogens and hosts interact over time, leading to a loss of virulence.
An artificial virus, built molecule by molecule, need not face such constraints. It could be completely programable, much like a software virus. Such artificial viruses, while never fully controllable, could tempt the world's militaries to look again at biological weapons. (Current biological weapons are not considered militarily useful because of the lack of precision and the possibility of blow-back.) Such advanced biological weapons though could be precisely targeted and programed to self-destruct after a number of cycles.
Now that I've scared you all to death, the article does say that the ability to construct a smallpox genome (and therefore the virus) is some ten to fifteen years away. That gives us a little time.