Wee Research

I've gone back to my earlier posts as a starting place. I had been researching nanotechnology, especially as it could be applied to medicine, as a possible movie topic but then my group veered off in another direction and I was left with an unused idea. I want to flesh it out here for this project.

My overall idea is a research project gone wrong (probably government or military)in which microscopic nano-cyborg bugs were designed to infiltrate human hosts and release some sort of pleasure-inducing drug/hormone into the brain on command to render the host harmless/docile/tractable/catatonic. They get out of hand (as is wont to happen in this sort of tale), there is an initial mass epidemic of "the people who grinned themselves to death" (and yes, that does come from a Housemartins song--I like British pop from the '80s, what can I say). It was controlled/comtained (how? must work out), and now is a much smaller ongoing problem--people on street corners purposely getting high by infecting themselves with the bugs, accidental infection a common hazard, so on. I need good information on nanotech, drug delivery systems, cyborg (living tissue/machine mixes), parasites that can affect the brain, and a few other weird topics.

Here's some of what I have so far:

Nanotech in medicine/drug delivery:

http://www.technologyreview.com/biztech/19784/

http://www.nsti.org/Nanotech2009/program/medical_biotech.html#TU82.5

Brain Parasites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis

http://eands.caltech.edu/articles/LXVI4/brainworms.html

http://animal.discovery.com/videos/monsters-inside-me-schistosomiasis-aka-snail-fever.html

And just as a side note--research brain parasites is disgusting. Really, really, disgusting. Especially the pictures...ew!!!!!

Right. That's all for now. I'm off to find less stomach turning things to read now.

--The Wombat