Mood:
not sureNow Playing: "It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)" by R.E.M.
Topic: Pseudoscientific Musings
The common cold bug is a real pisser: it's a virus with the potential to turn a healthy adult into a sniveling wreck for a few days.
Do not put that f**ker into space, though: it might come back with the strength to put you in a pine box.
Alright, so we're not quite talking about the worst, worst-case scenario yet (though that might not be too far off, either) but it's still enough to give one pause: germs exposed to spacecraft conditions coming back with a little extra pep (not as much extra pep as if we'd intentially screwed around with them, but still, it's almost as bad a Tripp-up when you think about it...)
...sorry...
Also of note is that the affected germ, Salmonella, appears to have only coincidentally been altered as a response to weightless conditions; the change in its turgid structure just happened to make it a little more suited to environments like mammalian intestines. That is to say, this is probably just an isolated coincidence, and it doesn't necessarily mean that a test tube filled with Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (the one that gives you mouth sores, not the other one...) would come back from space as a vial of Weaponized Bubonic Plague.
Still, when you think about the fact that we've been struggling against these diseases for the past 3 billion years, it doesn't seem smart to intentionally muck-up the natural back and forth arms race we've got going: you've gotta 'keep running to stay in place', sure, but what the hell happens when you intentionally pick up one of your opponents and literally toss them out ahead of you? (as a caveat, I am totally fine with the concept of genetic engineering, as long as the people involved know what the f*ck they're doing at each locus...)
After all: if we're not careful in how we alter our microbial enemies (or how we allow them to be altered) the eventual 'Strain' could see us plagued with problems that are sure to 'Tripp' us up in the future...
again, sorry...
