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"Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful."
- Philip K. Dick
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| Designed Bacteria | ||
| Very early reference to the idea of bacteria designed to wipe out a particular species, and no others. |
In this novel of a far-future Earth, an unlikely invader has come to challenge the remnants of humanity. A single spore has seeded and grown; its progeny capture one man - and learn from him. And release him to infect others.
Zar is able to gasp out this warning.
| "...Keep power flowing in the purification generators if you can! ...those plants! Their approach to problems is different from our own. No metals. No machines as we know them. But in hidden compartments in their tissues it was easy for them to create the bacteria of death! They invented those bacteria, and grew them, breaking them away from their own substance. Some way, when I was captive, I was infected. The thorns on the tendrils that held me! I was the carrier! |
| Technovelgy from Seeds of the Dusk,
by Raymond Z. Gallun. Published by Astounding Stories in 1937 Additional resources -
|
This engineered plague is not only virulent, but insidious in its effects:
Compare to the
engineered plague from The Hole in the Moon (1952) by Margaret St. Clair and the specific gene weapon from The Mannichon Solution (1967) by Irwin Shaw.
During its incipient stages the poisons of it seem actually to stimulate mental and physical activity, giving a treacherous impression of robust health.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Seeds of the Dusk
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and Technology by Raymond Z. Gallun
Tech news articles related to Seeds of the Dusk
Tech news articles related to works by Raymond Z. Gallun
Designed Bacteria-related
news articles:
- EDSAP Wearable Stroke Detection
| Biological War: A Scenario |
| What'll You Have? Extinct Animals Returned, Or Synthetic Eggshells? |
| Black Fungus Blocks Radiation |
| Lunar Biorepository Proposed For Cryo-Preservation Of Earth Species |
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'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
