There have been some fascinating developments in the fight against disease
that also portend some astonishing prophetic perspectives.
Researchers have discovered in recent years that some infectious and
potentially lethal bacteria such as E. coli, salmonella and
Vibrio cholerae (the bug that causes cholera) exchange messages with
one another in order to be dangerous. They are harmless if they can't
communicate.
These organisms have developed what researchers call a "bacterial language" - a
set of chemical signals that enables them to take a head count, rather like a
sergeant calling a platoon's roll. The bacteria don't attack until they
sense that their numbers are sufficient.
The messages are hormonelike molecules that certain microbes can send and
receive-saying, in effect, "I'm here," and responding, "So am I."
In a recent report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science,
Bonnie Bassler, a molecular biologist at Princeton University, in Princeton, NJ,
said E. coli and salmonella bacteria wait until their numbers
reach a critical mass before they start to release the poisonous toxins that
have sickened or killed people who ate contaminated food.
Scientists call this bacterial communication system "quorum sensing."
That's because it works a bit like a quorum in human society, where it takes a
certain minimum number of people to qualify as a meeting in certain kinds of
proceedings.
"Quorum sensing enables bacteria to coordinate their behavior, to act like
multicellular organisms and to acquire the benefits of cooperative activity,"
Bassler said. "If bacteria started producing toxins as soon as the
infection began, it would be like waving a flag to alert the host's immune
system."
Bassler continued, "If the bacteria are in small numbers, they don't
stand a chance, but if they wait until they reach high cell densities, then they
have a much better chance of establishing an infection."
The phenomenon of signaling molecules was discovered in the 1970s in two
sea-dwelling bacteria, Vibrio fischeri and Vibrio harveyi,
which emit a blue glow when their population reaches a certain density.
Since then, more than 30 species of bacteria have been found to exchange
messages this way. Some talk only to their own kind; others communicate
with alien species.
The Battle Against Disease
Battles in the information age involve controlling the enemies' communication
systems, as well as gaining adequate assessments of relative
strengths.
What king, going to make war against another king,
sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to
meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the
other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions
of peace. -Luke 14:31, 32
"Some bacteria both speak and understand a common chemical language," said
Jeffrey Stein, chief scientist at Quorex Pharmaceuticals, an experimental drug
company in Carlsbad, Calif. Stein likened it to a system of "wireless
communication."
Researchers figure they may be able to prevent or cure disease if they can
jam the bacterial communication network - say, by blocking the apparatus that
receives messages, known as a "receptor" - on the surface of the microbes.
New weapons and tactics to counter infectious microorganisms are becoming
crucial, since these little creatures keep developing resistance to existing
drugs.
For example, one such microbe, Staphylococcus aureus, resists all
but one potent antibiotic, vancomycin, and even that line of defense is
crumbling.
"There is a lot of interest in new drugs that turn off that
(Staphylococcus) system," said Stein, whose company is working to
develop and patent such remedies.
"We're developing compounds that interfere with molecular signaling [by]
turning off receptors. This is a new concept, a fundamentally new class of
antimicrobial tools."1
This progress in the fight against disease is both encouraging and yet at the
same time is also disturbing as we attempt to gain a broader perspective on our
prophetic horizon.
The Latest Pandora's Box?
There is a dark side to the emergent technologies that are ushering in the
21st century. These technologies include genetics, nano-technology, and
robotics.
The field of genetics has been making grand strides as DNA is becoming better
understood, and the human genome is beginning to yield to several mapping
efforts.
Nanotechnology is the science of building tiny devices out of individual
atoms or molecules; it was first theorized by Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman
in 1959.
Here, too, technologists are beginning to make some impressive progress.
The field of robotics is also the beneficiary of strides in making sentient,
programmable devices that can, in some contexts, outperform humans.
By combining robotics with the advances in nanotechnology, one of the goals
is to develop molecule-sized machines that are injectable, programmable, and can
navigate the human bloodstream.
As these advances combine further with developments in genetics, some are
predicting the development of self-replicating machines that can lead to new,
unexpected diseases.
It is expected that they may have the ability to be custom-built to attack
genetically distinct groups of people, or even specific individuals!
The potential military and social engineering implications are extremely
disturbing. As these three areas of pursuit begin to converge, we can
begin to see some terrifying possibilities that may prove far more dangerous
than the weapons of mass destruction that cast their shadow over the 20th
century.
The intense pursuit of these technologies, accelerated by unbridled corporate
competition, is proceeding at an alarming pace.
The potential for accidents or abuse is of increasing concern to those who
are concerned with the stewardship of our future and that of our
grandchildren.
And the bizarre prospects being ushered in by these new technologies may also
suggest some radically different perspectives for our Biblical eschatalogical
conjectures.
The Prophetic Implications
Among the famed "four horsemen" of the Apocalypse, we find the pale [chloros,
green] horse:
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was
Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth
part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with
the beasts of the earth. -Revelation 6:8
We usually infer that the "beasts of the earth" are of the four-footed kind;
we rarely include in our perspective the possibility that they might be
microbial.2
Among the end-time prophecies are a number of passages which warn of some
really strange maladies:
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was
given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the
earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have
not the seal of God in their foreheads.
And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they
should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a
scorpion, when he striketh a man.
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall
desire to die, and death shall flee from them. -Revelation 9:3-6
There are many passages that may take on a different complexion when viewed
from the vantage point of the current technological revolution in genetics,
nano-technologies, and robotics.
The potential Bibilical implications are so provocative that they will be the
subject of further articles in the forthcoming issues of our news journal.
Stay tuned. Film at eleven.
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