K.
This is not a good moment to run out of polymerase, damn it. It'll take some
time before I can get my hands on some more. Advanced as we are, we
still can't make DNA replicate itself out of thin air. And it all goes
back to the Outbreak. It seems like it all started not so much time ago.
Everything was going fine, technology improving, prices dropping and
synthetic biology flourishing. Of course it didn't last long.
First
it was that poor fellow from a university, can't even remember which
one. A sloppy mistake that contaminated the lab and cost a few people
their lives. That kind of stuff makes the news, maybe creates some new
legislation but it's never world-changing. Unlike a precise, well
organised bioterrorist attack that happened 2 years later. Back in the
days some experts assumed that pathogens cannot overcome their
limitations while facing the exponential growth rate of our technology.
Clearly someone didn't account for the same technology working in favour
of the enemy. All it took was a good place to start with.
1,163,743
deceased, many more severely debilitated for the rest of their lives. I
remember this number well. However much sympathy I felt for the victims
and their relatives, I could easily see how it would affect me and
everyone else. No more free access databases, sequencing or synthesis.
No more synthetic biology. A new dark age for technology. However, the
new regulations were messy and people already got a taste of the change they
so desperately needed. You cannot stop progress. Unfortunately, for
now the progress still needs the damned polymerase! 
No comments:
Post a Comment