NOW WHAT??

From New Scientist, Jan. 2007

Follow the link below for the full story:

The DNA so dangerous it does not exist
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19325853.200

excerpt from end of article:

Hampikian believes the applications of his work could be wide-ranging. He has already received a $1 million grant from the US Department of Defense to develop a DNA "safety tag" that could be added to voluntary DNA reference samples in criminal cases to distinguish them from forensic samples. Such tags would not necessarily have to consist of lethal sequences, but could be based on primes that would be easy to detect using a simple kit.
Further down the line there is the possibility of constructing a "suicide gene" to code for deadly amino acid primes. It could be attached to genetically modified organisms and activated to destroy them at a later date if they turned out to be dangerous, Hampikian suggests.
From issue 2585 of New Scientist magazine, 03 January 2007, page 12

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Yada yada yada. What do they really mean? "criminal cases"? Dept. of Defense? "suicide gene"? Now what are they up to? Sounds like sci-fi movie stuff. Becoming reality? Gads!!

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