Randall Flagg may not have to wait much longer to unleash his terror on us little mortals. Is our world looking more and more like the world that birthed the super-flu? The amazing thing about The Stand is that with each new decade it becomes even more relevant.
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USA Today's Dan Vergano has an interesting article titled, "Scientists create 1st bacteria strain from man-made DNA." Yikes! See, some of us can think of a certain author who already thought of this storyline. . . over thirty years ago.
.Vergano writes that Genome researchers Thursday have unveiled the first bacteria strain from man made genes. He's drawing from the journal of Science, which notes that it is a $40 million milestone in "the nascent field of synthetic biology."
.So -- bottom line -- what does that mean? According to Jim Collins of Boston University, the breakthrough "represents an important step in our ability to engineer organisms."
.Now enter Liz Heinecke at MinnPost.com -- she points out today that this breakthrough is disturbingly reminiscent of The Stand. She writes, When I told my husband that scientists at the J.Craig Venter Institute had assembled a functioning bacterium from bottles of chemicals, he said exactly what I was thinking. “It’s like The Stand.” Even if you’re not a Stephen King fan, you’ve probably heard of his novel where a genetically engineered strain of the flu virus wipes out almost every human on earth."
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