Exotic Biothreats
摘要
In the context of the Meta-Biothreat new breeds of pathogens may be used to derail surveillance and intervention. Such cases are the fully or partly engineered strains—Metapathogens but also the Neopathogens. The latter are species and strains emerging or discovered recently and not yet properly processed by surveillance means and concepts, nor by the adaptive collective immunity or the medical intervention establishment. Such entities may be found in secluded locations on earth, in what may be termed “biospheric bubble”, or in remote areas within the biosphere but isolated due to ecologic or geographic/geophysical barriers and they may be of similar to existing ones and studied by Microbiology, or of totally different biochemical basis, being in the realm of Xenobiology. Similarly, Astrobiology tackles entities found in space, similar to terrestrial ones if the Panspermia theory holds water and studied by Exobiology; or totally different and studied once more by Xenobiology. Other cases of exotic microorganisms may be unclassified, but the biobots refer to existing cells combined to higher structures hitherto unknown and thus forming new organisms, while de-extinction recreates extinct and thus unknown but fully evolved microorganisms, as happened with the Spanish flu virus.