The age of programmed biological weapons is approaching, and scientists warn that they could be as deadly as, if not more than, nuclear weapons.
These weapons use something called synthetic biology, which is like genetic engineering, but on steroids.
Basically, it's about reprogramming genes to perform a specific function.
But a panel of academic experts at the New America Future of War conference warned that these weapons could be just as big a problem as nuclear weapons were, and still are.
"Biologically based conflicts of the future would be insane in comparison: 'I will destroy your food supply', 'I will destroy your water sources', 'I will remove your ability to reproduce', 'I will remove your gene line from being able to propagate' are just some of the examples that stated Michael Crowe, dean of the American State University of Arizona, and reports news.com.au.
He also warned that he must seriously sit down at the table and think about these things, before we lose all the strings in our hands.
In the US, the agency for advanced research in defense technology, DARPA, has been investigating the possibility of using synthetic biology for war purposes for years, and in 2014, an office for biological technologies was established within that agency.
Their research so far is simply terrifying. In 2011, DARPA began investing heavily in the BioDesign project.
His goal was to produce a synthetic organism that could live forever, or if needed, kill itself with a so-called collecular switch. Such organisms would, as DARPA put it, "produce the intended biological effect", which in other words means - whatever its creators and those who control it desire.
Bonus video:
