In an article titled ‘Virus X is Not What Anyone is Expecting’ posted on her Substack, Karen Kingston highlighted an interview from more than 20 years ago with the late Michael Crichton, author of many bestselling novels including ‘Jurassic Park’. Crichton’s books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films.
On 26 November 2002, Crichton was interviewed by American journalist and talk show host Charlie Rose about his book ‘Prey’ which was published that month.
He also discussed “the dangers of self-replicating biosynthetic pathogens (or what we call genetically modified viruses), gene editing and the dangers of highly advanced biotechnologies,” Kingston said.
The synopsis of Prey reads:
In the Nevada desert, an experiment has gone horribly wrong. A cloud of nanoparticles – micro-robots – has escaped from the laboratory. This cloud is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. It is intelligent and learns from experience. For all practical purposes, it is alive.
It has been programmed as a predator. It is evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour.
Every attempt to destroy it has failed.
And we are the prey.
As Britannica notes, although he was often criticised by the scientific community for being sensationalist, Crichton was known for the careful research that went into his work. For example, he meticulously studied the science underlying the premise of Jurassic Park.
“Crichton continued to postulate on the effects of scientific advancements in works of science fiction such as Prey (2002), about nanotechnology; Next (2005), in which he returned to the blurry ethical boundaries of genetic engineering; and the 2005 thriller State of Fear, his polemical take on global warming,” Britannica notes.
Crichton described his book Prey as follows:
In the case of Prey, I was interested in knowing where three trends might be going – distributed programming, biotechnology, and nanotechnology.
As a concept, nanotechnology dates back to a 1959 speech by Richard Feynman called There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom. Forty years later, the field is still very much in its infancy. But practical applications are starting to appear.
Nanotechniques are already being used to make sunscreens, stain-resistant fabrics, and composite materials in cars. Soon they will be used to make computers and storage devices of extremely small size.
And some of the long-anticipated “miracle” products have started to appear as well. In 2002, one company was manufacturing self-cleaning window glass; another made a nanocrystal wound dressing with antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties.
In 2002, Michael Crichton wrote an article ‘Could Tiny Machines Rule the World’ for Parade magazine that coincided with the release of his novel, Prey. In the following excerpt, Crichton speculates about how nanotechnology could change our world. We were unable to find a copy of the original article published by Parade on 24 November 2002, however, there is an extract published on the Michael Crichton website and also by The Fountain magazine, a publication controlled by the Gülen or Hizmet movement.
Crichton says: “These organisms [self-reproducing tiny computers] will be created by nanotechnology, perhaps the most radical technology in human history: the quest to build man-made machines of extremely small size, on the order of 100 nanometres, or 100/billionths of a meter. Such machines would be 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Experts predict that these tiny machines will provide everything from miniaturised computer components to new medical treatments to new military weapons. In the 21st century, they will change our world totally.”
Nanotechnology, The Fountain, 1 July 2003
Two days after his article was published in Parade, Crichton was interviewed by Charlie Rose.
“I’m quite worried about the whole area of self-reproducing technologies – which is already biotechnology … [With genetic engineering] conceivably, just conceivably, if there was some kind of a virus that interfered with the photosynthesis, in enough plants … everything’s gone. The biosphere is essentially wiped out,” he warned.
Michael Crichton interview on Charlie Rose about ‘Prey’, 26 November 2002, (32 mins)
If the video above is removed from YouTube, you can watch it and read the transcript on Charlie Rose’s website HERE.
What Crichton was referring to is self-replicating biosynthetic viruses that could infect plants and hijack the photosynthesis process, Kingston wrote. “Please see THIS 2022 report on self-replicating biosynthetic pathogens being bred into plants to hijack the photosynthesis process.”
Lettuce Virus X
In 2008, Springer Link published an article about a virus infecting lettuce in Tehran province in Iran. The article stated:
Based on particle morphology, physicochemical properties and the complete genome sequence, this virus is a member of a new species in the genus Potexvirus, for which the name lettuce virus X (LeVX) is proposed.
Biological assays using an infectious cDNA clone and a wild-type isolate of LeVX revealed that the virus, despite reaching high concentrations in all lettuce cultivars tested, does not cause symptoms in lettuce.
Dizadji, A., Koohi-Habibi, M., Izadpanah, K. et al. Characterisation of lettuce virus X, a new potexvirus infecting lettuce in Iran. Arch Virol 153, 1867–1875 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-008-0191-x
For 180 euros, LeVX virus inoculum – any part of the pathogen that can initiate infection – can be purchased from the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (“DSMZ”). “There are NO known Nagoya Protocol restrictions for [LeVX],” DSMZ states.
DSMZ claims to be the world’s most diverse collection of biological resources – bacteria, archaea, protists, yeasts, fungi, bacteriophages, plant viruses, genomic bacterial DNA as well as human and animal cell lines – providing all users with the necessary legal certainty in the handling of their bioresources under the Nagoya Protocol, a 2010 supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
According to Wikipedia, DSMZ is a global supplier of microorganisms and cell cultures for university, non-university and industrial research with more than 10,000 customers in over 80 countries. It is a member of several international organisations such as the European Culture Collections’ Organisation (“ECCO”), the World Federation for Culture Collections (“WFCC”) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (“GBIF”), which is a partner in the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.
At the end of March, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill dubbed the “House Lettuce bill” which defines any food that “contains a vaccine or vaccine material” as a drug under Tennessee law and the “food” would have to be labelled as a “vaccine.”
“Lettuce is being weaponised with mRNA, not medicated,” Kingston said.
Lettuce Virus X, or what we call “mRNA Vaccine Lettuce” includes mRNA viruses that hijack the chloroplasts of green plants to produce highly infectious pathogens instead of oxygen. Please see this report of the China National GeneBank Plant Databases and Lettuce Virus X. [Note: The ‘Lettice Virus X’ article Kingston linked to is behind a paywall. However, we were able to find Lettuce Virus X on the China National GeneBank so we can assume she is using the term, abbreviated to LeVX, as described above.]
If you’d like to better understand synthetic biology, Lettuce Virus X, mRNA gene editing technologies, and how you can protect you and your community, please subscribe to The Kingston Report [on Substack].
Virus X is Not What Anyone is Expecting, Karen Kingston, 15 April 2024