This is scary and exciting beyond belief. "Altered HIV Attacks Mice Tumors" talks about a research project in which HIV was altered to attack cancer cells instead of immune cells. It was apparently rather successful in mice. They claim it isn't really much of a risk because they "have completely removed 80 percent of the virus. So really it's just a carrier." Obviously a potential cure for cancer needs nothing else to be exciting really, but this is especially so because they are building a cure from a plague. What a mind-boggling example of bringing good from evil! It is scary though. The claim is they can target "any protein on the surface of a cell" and have "seen success with about a dozen different molecules, including brain and other blood cells." On one hand, this will make it particularly effective, it can be customized for the various cancers, making it potentially particularly effective, assuming there is a way to tell the difference between the cancer cell and the normal cell from the cell surface for any given type of cell. On the other hand though, the potential for biological weaponry of particular nastiness, especially for those with a genocidal bent (Saddam Hussein, your average PLA suicide bomber wishing to kill Jews, several instances of this in Africa currently, the whole Bosnia/Serbia thing not long ago..) is not particularly far under the surface here, now is it? Just goes to show, technology is never in and of itself good or evil, it all comes down to the use to which man puts it.
