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Jacob Drowns

High School Student, Wind Sail Receptor Inc.

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What if we could code a virus to tell our skin cells to collect/produce/store iron or another material, so that the skin would be stronger.

I like in the experiment where a virus was injected into mice that doubled muscle mass, what if that virus code was to double the damage resistance of skin, by storing/creating or collecting organic or non-organic particles in the body or through the body by eating, drinking, injecting or other methods as to have these particles in the skin and function as an under skin armor, scraping your knee would be as if you were wearing knee pads. This is very Sci-Fi I know, but I wonder If it could be done???

Topics: DNA bio-engineering virus
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    Jacob Drowns

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    Aug 31 2011: I'm going to be honest, I didn't really even consider any of those aspects, but know that you brought it up I'm going to start doing more research on this subject before coming up with ludicrous ideas. I will reform my hypothesis and restate my findings, as to make a much more efficient concept. Thank you so much for your comment, this is why I love TED, there's no judging or discriminating Ideas only constructive criticism. :)

  • jaeyun hwang

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    Aug 31 2011: The human body is a fine tuned machine. Your idea would be impractical. Our skin was developed to be what it is because it is what we need. By changing skin dynamics you would cause more problems than you fix. So okay the skin is stronger, so how do you run faster when you need more energy to bend your knee. How do those particles interfere with healing and growing and wrinkles and skin thickness and sweating and blushing and swimming and hair growth. E.T.C There is no end to the problems that can develop by simply changing one variable.

  • Bob Shingles 10+

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    Aug 24 2011: How likely is the chance that the Virus may mutate?

    Sure it may mutate into a harmless form but is there also a chance that that a mutation may become rather harmful?
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      Jacob Drowns

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      Aug 25 2011: I would assume the chance of mutation is very unlikely, There was no evidence of that happening in the experiment with the mice found at this link: http://nihrecord.od.nih.gov/newsletters/02_23_99/story03.htm
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      griffin tucker 10+

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      Aug 25 2011: i'd like to see technology (cybernetics) of a second technology 'stomach' built into the human body to store minerals/vitamins from ingested foods/materials.

      when too much of the material/food/mineral/vitamin is detected in the body, the 'stomach' takes it out of the bloodstream and stores it until it is needed later.
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