Always on the leading scientific edge when it comes to making war, the Pentagon has come up with another futuristic quest. When they persued “invisible” aircraft and succeeded with the Stealth Bomber and fighter planes, we were all impressed, but that’s nothing compared to this latest effort in the quest for military superiority: Immortal synthetic organisms.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is spending $6 million on a project called BioDesign, with the purpose of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” DARPA wants to create “organisms”, creatures of some sort, that can be programmed to live indefinitely, or can be killed by use of a molecular switch.

By encoding their creations DNA with “tamper-proof cells” they will control their loyalty, and their synthetic creatures will also have serial numbers encoded in their cells ala the replicants in Blade Runner.

Darpa is also investing $20 million into a new synthetic biology program, and $7.5 million into “increasing by several decades the speed with which we sequence, analyze and functionally edit cellular genomes.”

As if taking a page from the Sci-Fi movie Blade Runner wasn’t enough, they’re also working on a real-live version of Schwarzneggers Terminator 2. Remember that one, where the antagonist is a robot from the future that is liquid metal and can flow like mercury and take any form? Well, guess what? DARPA is working on ChemBots, chemiical robots that can

“* Travel a distance;
* Traverse an arbitrary-shaped opening much smaller than the largest characteristic dimension of the robot itself;
* Reconstitute its size, shape, and functionality after traversing the opening;
* Perform a function or task using an embedded payload.” (In other words, blow itself up.)

“This program creates a convergence between materials chemistry and robotics through the application of any one of a number of approaches, including gel-solid phase transitions, electro- and magneto-rheological materials, geometric transitions, and reversible chemical and/or particle association and dissociation.

With ChemBots, our warfighters can gain access to denied spaces and perform tasks safely, covertly, and efficiently. ”

Just a little insight into the grand future being planned for Humanity by our mad scientists.