Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders. They're watching their feet: provable mistakes are bad for them. We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes."
- Larry Niven
 |
| WAGD Germ Detector | ||
| A hand-held biohazard analyzer. |
When a truck carrying suspected hazardous materials jackknifes after a police pursuit, FBI agent Rebecca Rose tries to make an on-the-scene determination.
| She had yet to bring out her WAGD - pronounced Wag-Dee, for Wright Assay Germ Detector - a biohazard analyzer the size and shape of a large magic marker. She carried two in her coat pocket. Some in the field called the WAGD the Death Stick. Others had corrupted the acronym to "We're All Gonna Die."
...She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a WAGD, hiding most of it in her palm and up her sleeve, then swiftly uncapped it ... and ran the moist gel tip along the inside... She capped and pocketed the device... |
| Technovelgy from Quantico,
by Greg Bear. Published by Vanguard in 2007 Additional resources -
|
The WAGD germ detector is similar to a real-life device, the BioSeeq. The BioSeeq handheld is a six-channel automated thermocycler rapidly transitions between melting, annealing, and extending temperatures for DNA and specific primer sequences thereby permitting the 1 x 10(9) fold amplification of biological samples.
In an interview with Technovelgy.com, Greg Bear had this to say about the WAGD germ detector:
I have this in the book, the WAGD, which can pick up every commonly pathogenic bacteria or virus trace by rubbing a wet felt-tip marker against it. I think that sort of thing can be done, and is being done, and that will help to determine when a biological attack is underway. But also, giving people the chance to rapidly immunize or prepare themselves, do research for a large national bio-defense immunization effort, which includes those possibilities in a national program, I think that's being contemplated now. It wasn't around the time of 9/11.
I modeled that on things I saw in 2002, briefcase size detection devices that would use microchannel fluidics labs, labs on a chip, that sort of thing."
Technovelgy: I don't know if you've read The Cobra Event, by Richard Preston...
GB: "No, I hadn't read that yet."
T: In the novel, he refers to a Boink (because that's the noise that it makes if it detects something), a handheld device that was a similar kind of idea. The only real handheld device I could find is the BioSeeq.
GB: "You could also use an Affymetrix chip which has all of these sequences encoded on its matrix, when the matrices light up, you have some evidence that you've been hit with something that has DNA similar to it. These have been used in laboratories for years when they do large-scale genetic testing with these chips that have been pre-programmed with bits of DNA which the opposite DNA will attach itself on."
(Read the rest of Greg Bear's interview on Quantico.)
Read a bit more about the precursors to the WAGD at TecTrends.
Greg Bear: "The other side is preparing defenses against biological attacks. Right now we have a lot of equipment which is in research form, some of which has been placed in the field, miniaturized detection equipment.
Find out more about the "Boink" from The Cobra Event, a 1997 novel by Richard Preston, which was probably also based on the BioSeeq, the technology for which became available in the mid/late 1990's.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Quantico
More Ideas
and Technology by Greg Bear
Tech news articles related to Quantico
Tech news articles related to works by Greg Bear
WAGD Germ Detector-related
news articles:
- LOCAD-PTS Handheld Microorganism Detector
- xTAG Viral Panel Tests 12 Viruses In One Sample
- NASA Biohazard Biosensor Nanotech-Based
- Programmable Lab-On-A-Chip
| MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User |
| Bone-Building Drug Evenity Approved |
| BrainBridge Concept Transplant Of Human Head Proposed |
| Natural Gait With Prosthetic Connected To Nervous System |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
