Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Azezel 03-29-06, 04:03 PM	This week's New Scientist caught my attention today - well, I mean it normally catches my attention, but today it caught my gaming attention, not my scientific attention... Anyway... Twenty years ago an epidemiologist discovered an interesting bug in a cooling tower in Bradford. For all the world it looked like a bacteria under the microscope, but it did not read posetive on any of the usual bacteriological chemical analysis techniques. So the chap put the damned thing in a freezer and forgot about it. Fast forward to 2004 - a French scientist comes to posses the bug and sticks it under a scanning electron microscope - he is shocked to discover that it is not a bacterium, but a virus. It - the mimivirus - is the largest and most complex virus ever discovered. It has almost 100 times more genes than most virusses (911) and is absolutely collosal, (740nm) larger than many bacteria. Like all virusses, the mimivirus has a hard protien shell, it has a shell made up of twenty triangular faces... As I was reading this an idea occured - I'm sure it's just occured to you too. A photonic force microscope could be used to engrave numbers on this virus, and then to roll it. If you remember the nanoguitar, well, this promises to be even better.
Seeker95 03-29-06, 05:48 PM	:rofl: Thank you very much! And for those interested, here is a link: mimivirus (http://www.cnrs.fr/cw/en/pres/compress/mimivirus.htm)
Johnny Cache 03-29-06, 09:03 PM	Interesting, indeed. Unfortunately for your d20 idea, Azezel, it's really very rough dodecahedral shape; here's a picture (http://giantvirus.org/Gallery/Tmimi-244.jpg) I found of it. Other pictures and more info can be found at http://giantvirus.org.
katarl 03-30-06, 02:27 PM	Ah yes, i can see it now, nano-physicists playing dnd with mimiviruses- what would they do for models? A 3nm redgar?! You could write your entire campaign setting in this full stop. Forget the tarrasque, why not put bacteria on the mat?
Raymond_Luxury_Yacht 03-30-06, 02:56 PM	You could write your entire campaign setting in this full stop. Forget the tarrasque, why not put bacteria on the mat? Reminds of a campaign idea I was toying with a while back, in which the PCs were all microscopic organisms living in a fish tank, but didn't know it.
Bruunwald 03-30-06, 04:40 PM	here's a picture (http://giantvirus.org/Gallery/Tmimi-244.jpg) I found of it. I think I see the Virgin Mary in it.
OravennasBrother 03-30-06, 04:56 PM	I think I see the Virgin Mary in it. And how many Bloody Mary's did that observation require?
Swarms 03-30-06, 05:40 PM	One :rimshot:
Johnny Cache 03-30-06, 06:53 PM	I think I see the Virgin Mary in it.The Virgin Mary?! Oh, c'mon now, can't y'all recognize Elvis when you see him?
Stardrake 03-30-06, 11:36 PM	Interesting, indeed. Unfortunately for your d20 idea, Azezel, it's really very rough dodecahedral shape; here's a picture (http://giantvirus.org/Gallery/Tmimi-244.jpg) I found of it. Other pictures and more info can be found at http://giantvirus.org. Oh, I dunno, it's not unlike one of those old TSR dice after a year or so of playing--they ended up a pretty rough dodecahedral shape, too....
Swarms 04-01-06, 05:03 PM	Not even a chuckle. I am crushed.