What happens when our chips get sick? Is there a Chip Doctor?

A couple of things in the news about Bacteria and Viruses being engineered into our components, on purpose, has me wondering what happens when our components get sick?

Colloidal Silver and Oil of Oregano are popular home remedies when we get a virus or bacteria. However if we treat our components that way, if we could, they stop working.

Colloidal Silver is something you can make at home with a current source, see Q1 and Q2 in figure five of Design Note 189 from Linear Technology for an example of a current source, and some pure silver wire, the kind used for repairing jewlruy. Always make sure you measure what you make. I use a HM Digital TDS-3 myself.

Mix the Oil of Oregano with some juice or water when you first take it, otherwise it will burn a hole in your tongue.

Sorry I digress...

Logic gates to program bacteria as computers by Julien Happich:

"A team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has engineered E. coli with the key molecular circuitry that will enable genetic engineers to program cells to communicate and perform computations. The work builds into cells the same logic gates found in electronic computers and creates a method to create circuits by 'rewiring' communications between cells."

How the Future of Big Tobacco Could Be Tiny Lithium Batteries by Kit Eaton:

"The tobacco mosaic virus is a destructive beast infecting over a hundred different species of plants, including tomatoes. [This includes many other plants of the Nightshade Family as well.] But it may have a weird eco benefit: Incorporated into lithium batteries, it can increase storage capacity ten times."

Maybe we have the Andromeda Strain to look forward to...