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Following COVID and having watched far too many zombie movies, I started thinking about an optimal design for a biological weapon. Symptoms wise I believe a modified version of rabies sounds interesting. Mission specific modifications could be made adjusting parameters like aggression, lethality vs permanent neural damage and so on.

However, given the set of symptoms a lot or effort will be put into preventing the pandemic which I want to create. Thus the viruses nature should not be immediately obvious. I first considered giving it a long incubation period, and allowing it to get infective as early as possible. While this might be effective, I considered a more vicious option.

A virus that is deployed in a rather harmless form, with just enough symptoms to ease it's spread and that changes it's nature a few months after the deployment in every infected individual nearly simultaneously. Specifically I wonder about the possibility of a molecular timer that starts at t1 and as it replicates stays at t1 - tpassed until it triggers the viruses change.

I am aware of telomeres, which do effectively have such a timer. However I wonder if something like my weapon could plausibly be build. Are there other know ways to do this in molecular biology?

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  • $\begingroup$ I’m voting to close this question because I feel it is inappropriate - especially now - to let WB members spend their creative energy on modern biological weapons of war. I regard it as off topic. This is not a WB rule, rather a personal choice. Ref meta, worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8569/… $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Mar 12, 2022 at 12:16
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    $\begingroup$ you can't use a timer because viruses pass on so little material, you can however use quorum sensing. which is how bacteria and viruses change behavior based on how densely populated they are. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7790227/…. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Mar 12, 2022 at 12:49
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    $\begingroup$ Current sensitivities notwithstanding, I like the question. Voting to leave open. $\endgroup$
    – Escaped dental patient.
    Mar 12, 2022 at 14:09

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Molecular timers on viruses are useless.

Viruses mutate a lot, and there's a good chance any limiters you put on them will be bypassed. Then your plague will start early.

Use an external signal like the moon.

Lots of animals can sense the moon. It's probably not too hard to make humans do the same. Insert DNA into the humans to alter them. Make the humans want to go outside, and have a strong desire to be aggressively amorous, with scratches and bites during romantic activity. Each full moon they see can trigger a greater release of a chemical that mentally breaks the human down more.

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  • $\begingroup$ Q: people who remain indoors, curtains closed during a full moon won't be affected ? $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Mar 12, 2022 at 12:05
  • $\begingroup$ Yep, though they will be very unhappy that they can't go outside. $\endgroup$
    – Nepene Nep
    Mar 12, 2022 at 12:08
  • $\begingroup$ I'd thought something along these lines, but with the blooming of clover, a tree pollen or maybe the national release of a new fuel additive - something in the air. I guess you've covered it though. $\endgroup$
    – Escaped dental patient.
    Mar 12, 2022 at 19:27
  • $\begingroup$ The moon is easier to ensure everyone sees than any plant or such. $\endgroup$
    – Nepene Nep
    Mar 12, 2022 at 20:11
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Phages might speak only to their own kind, but they can also listen in on other languages. Molecular biologist Bonnie Bassler and her graduate student Justin Silpe have found that viruses can use quorum-sensing chemicals released by bacteria to determine when best to start multiplying — and murdering. “The phages are eavesdropping, and they’re hijacking host information for their own purposes — in this case, to kill the host,” Bassler explains.

The secret social lives of viruses

The quorum sensing allows the virus to decide when it is ready to attack the cells.

This doesn’t get at the time or having a clock directly, but if a group of virus can communicate with another virus or groups of viruses, something that was dormant could decide to wake up. Or if the virus detects a change in biochemicals in the host due to stress or the moon, or some external chemical, it could become active.

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