Canadian boffins make blood from human skin, put it into mice Canadian boffins say they have managed to make human skin turn into blood: and, cleverly, they have avoided the possible pitfall of the new blood tending to cause cancer in mice. It was already known how to make red blood cells from stem cells, but the trouble with this method is that it produces embryonic or fetal blood - …
"The method involves infecting living adult skin cells with a special virus which inserts a gene known as OCT4"
Well, that sounds like it could either be used to make lots of blood for transfusions.
Or the latest biological weapon that will see us staggering down the streets , moaning , as our skin dissolves off our bodies leaving a bloody trail.
Lets hope the bio hazard controls hold up on that lab eh.
Every scientific development is employed by some government (or corporation - is there a difference anymore?) for EVIL. In fact a great many of our technological advancements are because governments/corporations put time and money into trying to develop new tools - usually for EVIL. “How can I use this to oppress people/make huge wads of cash” is generally the primary motivator for research nowadays. It’s rare – and wonderful – when research comes along that has a different motivation.
Truth be told however, I don’t see the point of this particular process for EVIL. There are plenty of terrible things (like acids) you could use to dissolve someone that seem like way less work. Given they use a virus for dissemination, my guess is that it would form a great carrier (with some modification) for a highly targeted biological weapon. I am guessing that the boffins in question engineered out the virus’ ability to replicate very far; something that is hugely important in designing a bioweapon that won’t come back to bite you in the ass.
Even if you are using it only to produce vast quantities of blood for your soldiers, (something most people would not see as EVIL because it is simply trying to ‘save lives’,) the folks you are fighting against would probably view this as an EVIL application of technology. You are using technology to provide your side with an advantage (wounded soldiers not dying when you injure them) that the other side doesn’t have.
So technology being used for EVIL? Almost certainly! The question is…who gets to define EVIL?
Wouldn't work.
For a start, shouting: "Now tell us what we want to know or we'll do that again." down the drain isn't likely to get a useful response.
However if you happen to be an evil villain, this is just what you need. A quick squirt of this stuff on your victim just before you drop him into the shark pool should produce the perfect result, regardless of when your minions last fed the sharks.
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