Michael Malone - Weebly

cell, and (b) people built up immunity to them.
"No getting around it," he confessed. The original
mandate of the operation had been to study pathogens
(he mentioned in passing some short-term tests they had
done with brucella and salmonella) and to study
commensals, that is, viruses and bacteria that exist
harmlessly in our systems all the time, but then all of a
sudden change and, in the doctor's phrase, "turn
vicious."
"One of our little projects was to learn how to
trigger that shift, to learn why, for example, an inactive
pneumococcus abruptly wants to become an active
pneumonia, and to learn how to make it happen."
"I get your point there," interrupted Eagerly.
"Obviously, science has got to prepare for the future by
looking for answers to the big questions, whatever the
cost. I keep thinking of those poor bastards that burned
up in Apollo Five, somehow they stick in my mind."
There was a brief silence, and then Svatopluk
resumed his explanation. "This is so, so kindergarten
you wouldn't believe it," he promised. His team had
finally come up with a germ that was very rare, hard to