DailyDirt: Playing With Biological Fire?

There was a time when, if something was viral, it was almost certainly a bad thing. (Now, being viral could mean you're going to be the next Justin Bieber.) With current biotech research, the end of common diseases could be at hand or we could be launching ourselves into the next era of viciously untreatable illnesses that we've had a hand in creating. Hopefully, we're not going to be living out a bad sci-fi movie plot anytime soon. Here are just a few potential precursors to the apocalypse, though.

• Oxford University researchers are testing a flu vaccine that will work on all known strains by targeting proteins in the virus that are common to all flu variants. But what happens 28 days later...? [url]
• The release of sterile transgenic mosquitoes in Malaysia was aimed at fighting dengue by reducing mosquito populations. This actually isn't the first time these mosquitoes were tested in the field... and I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. [url]
• Synthetic biology is a growing field now that the guidelines from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (PCSBI) are out. "Scientists can't be so naive to think there won't be a possibility of bad things happening, but I think the public will grow to accept synthetic biology if we're able to talk about all of the great things that can be done with it." [url]
• To discover more biotech stuff, check out what's roaming around in the StumbleUpon jungle. [url]  

As always, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Source: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110208/13340813007/dailydirt-playing-with-biological-fire.shtml

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