Grey Goo: Difference between revisions

'''Grey Goo''' is like a [[Horde of Alien Locusts]], only replace Alien Locusts with [[Nanotechnology]]—and instead of grass, they "eat" ''anything.'' Or, if the protagonists are lucky, just anything mineral or electronic.

* [[Browser Narcotic|How many tabs do you have open,]] [[Wiki Walk|and how many new tabs spawn from each of those tabllstabs,]] [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|and how much of your time have they devoured?]]

* ''[[Turn A Gundam (Anime)|Turn a Gundam]]'' features Black Goo in the form of the Moonlight Butterfly (''Gekkōchō''), which is named because it manifests as giant shimmering energy contrails that emerge from the titular [[Humongous Mecha]]'s back like wings. The nanomachines only target technology, but do so on an immense scale; the last time the Moonlight Butterfly was used, it sent humanity into a Dark Age that they're still recovering from (when the series begins, technology is roughly on par with the early 1900s).

* ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 film)|The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' remake tries to reboot the Earth with this. It was more a "Grey Cloud" than Goo, but same strategy.

* Virus Bombs of ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' work on a similar principle to the Red or Black Goo scenario noted above. The Imperium utilise them in dire situations when [[The End of the World as We Know It|a problem can only be solved by destroying a planet]].

* In ''[[Orion's Arm]]'', humanity's exodus from [[Earth-That-Was|Old Earth]] was caused by the [http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4ad4d58752948 Nanodisaster]. Though the grey goo itself was quickly neutralized by blue goo, The Great Expulsion was more due to the [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|Global Artificial Intelligence Amalgamation]] giving humanity the choice between living under strict ecological rules, getting the hell off of her, or [[Gaia's Vengeance|destruction]].

* A strange example from [[Real Life]] which has elements of the Grey Goo scenario: In the 1950's scientists managed to isolate an immortal cancer cell line (that is, undying cells that could be grown outside of the human body) which they named [[wikipedia:HeLa|HeLa]], after [[wikipedia:Henrietta Lacks|Henrietta Lacks]], an unfortunate woman who had died from the cancer. Scientists at the time were trying to isolate and grow normal human cells outside of the body but were having no luck. Within a short period of time, however, they noticed many of the normal cells suddenly being transformed into cancer cells. This puzzled scientists until they realized that the new cells were actually HeLa cells that had contaminated the normal cultures.

: HeLa cells were so durable that they were difficult to get rid of via sterilization and the tiniest bit could convert whatever normal tissue they came into contact with. HeLa cells soon spread throughout the world and even today scientists have problems dealing with HeLa contamination of their cell cultures.

: Fortunately for humanity, the HeLa cells quickly die out or result in only weak tumors when injected into a living human body (yes, there were people crazy enough to try this out). Even more fortunately for humanity, the HeLa cells ability to grow outside the human body led to it being a useful tool in the development of the Polio vaccine, in cancer research and in the testing of drugs, cosmetics and many other substances. A rare case where Grey Goo actually turned out to benefit humanity.

: Better yet, the cells are a [[Black Box]]; ''no one in decades of research has been able to figure out why they won't die!'' At this point in time, the mass of her post-death divided cells is greater than the mass of her body at death. Something on the order of 20,000 kilograms worth. And that's in the sixty years since she passed away.