Bugs in the System

Mar13
by on March 13, 2014 at 12:01 am

Given the increasing realisation amongst scientists of the sheer scale and importance of the human microbiome, it always makes me chuckle when science fiction programmes hand-wave away the possibility of contamination with the notion of “biological filters” built into the transporter system. No wonder Doctor McCoy was suspicious of the things: it’s one thing to know that you’re about to be broken down into a stream of atoms, and then (hopefully) reassembled correctly at the other end, but it’s another thing entirely to require a faecal transplant once you arrive!

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This comic is also available in French

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↓ Transcript
G1: Congratulations Senator, you're going to be the first human — actually the first carbon-based life form — to travel via our transporter.

Senator: Aren’t you concerned about any Earth bugs or bacteria infecting your people?

G1: The transporter system is fitted with an anti-pathogen mechanism to ensure that nothing nasty gets through.

Senator: Really? That sounds mighty impressive.

G1: Oh, it’s nothing special really. You use a similar process here on Earth. You even have a special name for it. What was it called?

Sorry, I'm still learning your language. It will come to me in a second…

Oh yes! That's it…

[On board the ship. The senator has been beamed up as a pile of ash]

G1: …Pasteurisation!

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