writerchick

Awesome! That helps a lot. Thank you!

Hi everyone! I have a science fiction story in which a dog has a GPS locator chip embedded under its skin, sort of like a Home Again or Avid chip. In one scene, the dog gets shot with what's basically a Taser. It was recently brought to my attention that the electrical current would likely destroy the chip. (Is that true?) Later in the story is a pivotal scene in which another character uses the chip to track the whereabouts of the dog. I don't want to cut the dog-shooting scene because it's fairly important from a character-revealing standpoint. If the chip were instead attached to a leather collar, would that prevent it from being destroyed by the Taser? Thanks!

Hi everyone, I wanted to return here to thank you all very much for your help! At long last, I'm almost ready to release this novel! It's scheduled to be out Dec 1. I'd like to offer those of you who've helped me a free e-book copy as my thank you -- and hope I don't make you cringe with the wrongness of the science! Drop me an email here or through my web site to tell me what file format you prefer (epub, mobi, PDF) and where to send it. Thanks again for your awesome guidance!

Ooh thanks! I had some concerns about using mosquitos because we could spray for them, but that CDC periodical had an article about a parasitic mite causing skin lesions in humans... Good luck with your writing! Writing fiction is even more fun than reading it.

Thank you, Grant!! That is very helpful information!

I can't tell you how wonderful y'all's help has been! I've been reading like mad, but a lot of what I read is so general and I'm not able to extrapolate the specific details to answer my own questions, so thank you, thank you! What I've come up with so far, for the book, is that the virus is transmitted via insect, maybe mosquito, and attacks humans. It's deadly with no known cure. The human population dwindles. The subspecies is created such that their bodies don't manufacture the protein targeted by the virus. The cure is an enzyme in the subspecies's saliva, making the subspecies very valuable to infected humans. But now I need the enzyme to not be manufacturable (otherwise, subspecies loses its value). Any ideas why this would be so? Manufactured enzymes would be chemically identical to the naturally-occurring one, right?

I was just reading the definition of an enzyme: "A protein molecule produced by living organisms that catalyzes chemical reactions of other substances without itself being destroyed or altered upon completion of the reactions." and "a protein made in the body and capable of changing a substance from one form to another" So can an enzyme change the nature of a virus, such as make it not attack the cells it used to target?

Is there any chance that there's some as-yet-unidentified coding RNA as well? Or is all the coding stuff identified already? (Sorry, I'm kind of a genetics noob too!)

... just waiting for a SF writer to come along and take advantage! Thanks a bunch! That was very intriguing!

How about in a person without the ability to create antibodies? I read this (very interesting) article about a protein found in deer tick saliva that keeps the HIV virus from latching onto T cells. I wondered how such a protein would be introduced into a person with HIV in order to stop it from reproducing further.

If I understand correctly, viruses are attracted to cells with a particular type of protein on their surfaces. Is there such a thing as a "free floating" protein, or a protein that's part of something else that isn't a living cell, but that could fool a virus particle into attaching to it? Sort of like a magnet? Maybe the virus would be rendered inert because there's nothing inside the host to let the virus reproduce?

Thank you so much! I'm still trying to get my head around all that.

Oh I see. Does that mean the faster a virus mutates, the more difficult it is to create a vaccine for? If some viruses attack the liver, and some attack the T-helper cells, and some attack the respiratory system, is it feasible that one super virus could start out attacking one organ, then mutate in the body and attack something else?

Thanks so much for your replies! I think this was the info I was looking for! I was sort of thinking along the lines of canine parvo virus and how deadly it is for dogs but not at all for humans. I will definitely do that next. I may have more questions afterward, I hope you don't mind. Thanks again!

Hi everyone, I'm working on a science fiction novel, and came here to hopefully get some help with Real Science in order to make my story more plausible. I love science, but I'm more of an occasionally-informed lay person than a serious student of the sciences. My current story is about a human subspecies genetically engineered for immunity to a virus I call The Grip. Their immune systems create Grip antibodies, but humans' do not, and the Grip virus attacks the organs. I have a ton of questions about viruses and immunity, and hope you can help. I'll start off with just a few: 1. If the virus appeared to the human immune system as a beneficial protein, would this explain why no vaccine would work on them? (Is there another easy explanation for why a vaccine is ineffective?) 2. If the subspecies created antibodies, and those were extracted and injected into an infected human, would they find and kill the virus? What sorts of reasons could I use to keep that from happening? 3. Is it more feasible to have a virus release a toxin that is deadly, or to simply kill healthy cells? Which would be more difficult to treat? Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!