My understanding is that in this approach, rather than producing a long sequence of DNA, they're making tiny sequences of address and data snippets, then assembling them with enzymes randomly. Containing addresses allows the data to be assembled back into the correct order.
With typically three base pairs per amino acid, encoding complex proteins in 30 base pairs isn't possible. That said there are other methods to assemble longer sequences.
Nothing is technically stopping someone from writing a deadly virus, except that you'd have to engineer its DNA (not a trivial task). Why do that when nature has created plenty of deadly viruses to choose from? Furthermore, for military purposes, you would want something controllable, so you can deploy it without also killing yourself. Bacterial agents tend to be more suited to this.
It is actually trivial. You can look up the DNA for most viruses. If it is long you could just ligate a few oligios together. I wonder if oligo synthesis companies have black lists of specific sequences if a random person orders them.
Also, many viruses are RNA based. More tricky than DNA. But in that case I would just order DNA, build a complementary DNA virus and then use RNA polymerase to make the RNA.
" for military purposes, you would want something controllable"
I am not sure the guys that I am thinking of that would be interested in such a thing would worry too much about that. I guess if you are willing to fly a plane into a tower then you would not be too concerned of dying in the process of developing a virus.
Better than a virus may be the Mutagenic Chain Reaction. Maybe my genes are better than yours and I want to spread mine? ;-)
"The threshold necessary for small groups to conduct global warfare has finally been breached, and we are only starting to feel its effects. Over time, in as little as perhaps twenty years and as the leverage of technology increases, this threshold will finally reach its culmination -- with the ability of one man to declare war on the world and win."
Brave New War back in 2006
> It is actually trivial. You can look up the DNA for most viruses.
I had assumed here that "writing" meant engineering new code, not copying from existing viruses.
Terrorists getting hold of viruses has always been possible. If someone were so inclined, I'm sure they could get hold of an Ebola strain and pass it around somewhat, using no special technology.
This wouldn't work for viruses since they're using a fairly arbitrary coding which wouldn't exactly match up with viral DNA/RNA. But there are other genome synthesis methods which can and do produce viruses. However, that's been possible for many years now (viruses are extremely small so the expensive DNA synthesis methods are still cheap and doable) and no one's done it, despite worries about someone taking published genomes of the Spanish Influenza or smallpox and synthesizing them. Like biowarfare in general, I wonder if the reason is simply that it's harder than it looks and anyone smart enough to do it just isn't that evil?
A virus can't reproduce without cells to hijack.
Also a virus itself consists of more than DNA/RNA. They would still need the rest of the virus, right?
