Build Your Own Virus

Wire Tap writes "Scientists have assembled the first synthetic virus. The US researchers built the infectious agent from scratch using the genome sequence for polio. The most amusing part is this snippit: 'To construct the virus, the researchers say they followed a recipe they downloaded from the internet and used gene sequences from a mail-order supplier.' Heck, don't we all have our own mail-order suppliers for gene sequences?"

Finally!

[Joe Tie.]

From the article: injected it into mice to demonstrate that it was active. The animals were paralysed and then died.

After decades of research, advances in biotechnology finally creates the long fabled "better mousetrap".

A new virus?!

[Schmelter]

Great, another computer-engineered virus.

No wonder my roomate has been screaming "I send you this file in order to have your advice. See you later. Thanks. " while throwing porn at me and defacing my website. Fortunately, I was able to powercycle him with a car-battery.

Oh great...

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn script kiddies designing their own viruses, how long until they get their own downloadable virus construction toolkit?

What's it called?

9o7i0

kewl! I just made 5m4L7p0x

Release it dude!

Re:No more DeCSS for me

[Mode0x13]

TrollTech version 2.0.14 (Crapola) running on i286-dosbox

Entering postlevel: -1
probing goatse.cx... OK
BSD is dying... OK
Mounting Natalie Portman... OK
nportman: Covered in hot grits
nportman: naked and petrified

Slashdot losers: found
slashdot: 10 stories on front page
slashdot: 5 linux FUD articles
slashdot: 2 feebleminded rants
slashdot: 2 recycled articles
slashdot: 1 junk science story
slashdot: this is not news for nerds, stuff that matters.

Registering troll personalitires...
Wintroll 3.0 (c) 1998 Redmond
Right Wing Troll: found. Loaded at 0x1950
Jon Katz (c) VA Linux

Welcome to TrollTech. HTH. HAND.

C:>TROLLTEK> CD SLASHDOT

C:>TROLLTEK\SLASHDOT> DEL *.*

Spit Kiddies!

[tchdab1]

Now we'll get hassled by spit kiddies - anyone that can follow a sequencing recepie will be generating these things.

Re:Huge medicine possibility

[Subcarrier]

*THUDDUD*

Oooh, verdamnt, not once more! Back to ze dravink board es ist. Igor, clear out ze body and vasche ze beakerz! Schnell! Ich must vork on the formula some more! Hunh...

Re:Huge medicine possibility

[nick357]

"I may not have morals, but I have standards."

When someone who is in the business of "using a modified adenovirus to deliver a suicide gene", is using a sig like this, it scares the bejeebers out of me...

Re:Finally!

[Kredal]

Polio didn't kill the mice... the scientists were just careless and injected the saline solution into the mice's spinal cords, causing paralysation, and then death.

False alarm, nothing to see here...

Re:Huge medicine possibility

[Anonymous Coward]

At least he's not plugging his new book: "Apoptosis for Dummies"

Shades of Jake Brundlefly

[gelfling]

Do it yerself gene sequencing...ooops

Genetic Recombination Lab in highschool

[bsDaemon]

in my AP Biology class we made a strain of e.coli that was resistant to the antibiotic ampicilin. That was pretty fun. We also got them to turn green when they broke down lactose (or glactose...which ever is bigger...i forget).
I guess this is more impressive though. I want to be a bio major in college, so i hopefully will get to do some neat stuff like this.

Mail Order Gene Sequences

[CaptainCarrot]

They should be very, very careful. You never know what might happen [sluggy.com] with mail-order gene sequences, or genetic material from eBay [ebay.com] or such places.

Re:Finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh. Well, what a relief.