A poll

[james_davis_nicoll]

[Poll #1934990]

Comments

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

One thing people are overlooking wrt landmines - if you construct a habitat around the things, eventually something will evolve the ability to detect and/or eat them, which could be handy.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

That was one of my sister's after-school jobs in high school.

No, I'm not joking. Kids in the Honors science program in Wayland, MA were allowed to apply for internships for DARPA at Lincoln Labs in Lexington. She was working on a project to genetically engineer yeast to consume TNT for cleaning up minefields.

[dbdatvic.livejournal.com]

Well, if nothing else, it's a potential source of a lot of bound chemical energy...

--Dave, evolution is a cruel mistress

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The real problem was the question of "what if it evolves to eat petroleum, and then goes airborne?"