Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: hplabs!jwatts@hpihoah.hp.com (Jon Watts) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Biological grey goo Message-ID: Date: 7 Dec 89 18:37:06 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino Lines: 13 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu The proposal of a genetically engineered bacteria which displaces the tooth decay causing bacteria in the mouth is amasingly similar to an experiment which has ALREADY been performed. The mouth contains many kinds of bacteria only a few of which secrete acid. Some researcher isolated a strain which does not excrete acid, applied (to themselves) a treatment which kills all the bacteria in the mouth, then deliberately re-infected themselves with the non-acid-producing bacteria. The experiment was apparently successful, after some period of time (several months as I recall) they tested themselves and found the non-acid-producing bacteria to be the predominent strain. Jon Watts