With the dawn of the new millenium comes the awe-inspiring news of cracking of the genetic code and widely speculated beginning of what is called the  “genome age.”Undoubtedly, the technology could be used for the good of mankind, but what if those endowed with the knowledge are tempted to play Hitler? Genes have everything to do with racial characteristics, and there is a lurking danger that racial cleansing may become the  “burden” of the deranged racists or a jehad of the bigoted or equally macabre, a path to salvation. 

In June 2000, scientists triumphantly announced that they had broken the human source code. They managed to isolate and depict a set of 23 chromosomes, which hold inheritable traits, and arrayed in sequence the 3.2 billion units of DNA. This revolutionary discovery augurs a new era bringing boons and banes alike, and placing a  fund of knowledge in human hands with unprecedented power to use or abuse at will. 

Coupled with this discovery is the introduction of biochips that perform thousands of biological functions, e.g. decoding genes in a fraction of a second. Motorola, Packard Instruments, and the U.S. government's Argonne National Laboratory have teamed up to mass-produce biochips. Motorola has developed the manufacturing processes for the chips and Packard makes the instruments. These chips cost about 100 dollars a piece, but eventually would be a dollar or less. An interesting aspect of this project is that the Russian Academy of Sciences' Englehardt Institute of Molecular Biology is collaborating in 19 inventions related to the biological microchips, licensed exclusively to the joint venture companies. Like cryptochips of the Clipper and Compton kind, the likes of this project could unleash proprietary biochips to reengineer humans and play havoc with the human species

Biochips employ microgel technology of microscopic structures. 10,000 or more microgels rest on a glass surface of the size of a single microscopic slide, acting like mini test tubes. Within each microgel structure, chemical compounds can be tested against biological targets for providing answers to questions like DNA sequence, genetic variation, gene expression, protein interaction, and immune response. The chips work faster than conventional methods. Instead of reading DNA one letter or word at a time, the biochips read whole phrases and sentences at a time. 

The greatest impact of Genome and biochips is in the area of medical diagnostics. Researchers would be able to identify in minutes mutated genes that could cause medical problems, such as cancer and multiple sclerosis. Use of biochips could eliminate guesswork and make diagnosis more precise and accurate thereby enabling timely treatment of many diseases. On-the-spot identification of specific bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms would become possible. Other uses of genetic analysis could be to improve crops in agriculture,and better breeding and disease detection in animal husbandry.

Think tanks the world over have toyed with the possibilities that wild-eyed dreamers and fiction writers have written about ever-expanding biotechnology applications, developmental and peaceful on the one hand and destructive and warlike on the other.. One such heuristic conclave of the latter type, “Biotechology Workshop 2020,” was held in 1996 by the Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, an account of which by Ed Regis appeared in the Wired, some factual, some crystal gazing, and some more with fictional overtones.The author makes two pertinent observations, viz. migration of analytical thinking from civil to military and the wide range of gizmos from cultured petroleum eaters, biodestroyers of stockpiles of chemical agents like mustard gas, biosensors that sniff deadly gases, explosives and other agents, biocamouflage clothing that changes colour and harmonizes with the ambient temperature rendering the wearer invulnerable to visual and infrared detection, and, to top it all, the ultimate bramhastra of genetically engineered superpathogens that could  selectively target  the likes of Osama bin Laden by DNA identification.

An article  entitled “Genetic Warfare Nearing Reality” by Uzi Mahnaimi and Marie Colvin appeared in the London Times in November 1998, suggesting that Israel is close to perfecting an “ethno-bomb” to engineer deadly micro-organisms that attack only those bearing the distinctive genes carried by Arabs but spares the Jews. It is all a question of identifying genetic profiles that set a race apart from others. During the apartheid era the South African Whites had experimented on a “Pigmentation Weapon.” Let us not forget the growing menace of Talibanization and the Hindus wearing the yellow badge.

Regis sums up his argument,” So, the biowars may be out there in the dim distance along with biomaterials, biomimetics, bioproduction, biocoupling, bioremediation, biocomputers, biochips, biosensors, biofeedstocks, biogene.” And that sets the agenda for our eggheads and war-gamers, viz. intelligence about abuses of biotechnology and genome by our enemies and terrorists, and strategy and technologies for counter-counter gene warfare. Any takers?