BioShock - Plasmids

BioShock is a FPS RPG hybrid that was released in 2007, and had a lot of commentary about Ayn Rand philosophy, the nature or nurture argument and morality. It also featured the ability to set freeze people and explode their corpses with a grenade launcher. More importantly, it features an awful of pseudo-science...

The Set-Up

You, as a feller called Jack, go under the sea to a fallen utopia called Rapture. Whilst there, you make use of the miracle substance ADAM, which is a form of unstable stem cells produced by a certain species of sea slug. Using ADAM allows you to modify your genetic code using Plasmids, which give you a range of new abilities. These include making you more resilient to damage, or letting bees live in your forearms, then shooting them out as a buzzing bullet of pain.


The Science

Ignoring the city built under the sea using only post-war technology for a moment, let's take a closer look at ADAM. Stem cells of course do exist in the real world, even if they aren't harvested from sea slugs.

Science has always been interested in stem cells because of their ability to differentiate. This essentially means they have the ability to become a range of different cells in the body depending on their neighbouring cells. Stem cells are organised by levels of potency, which describes the variety of different cells they can become:

• Totipotent stem cells are the cells formed when an egg and a sperm fuse during conception. These cells can became embryonic cells (part of the embryo) or extra embryonic (part of the placenta and umbilical cord)
• Pluripotent stem cells are the cells found in newly formed embryos and can become almost any cell in the body
• Multipotent stem cells can became any cells within a closely related family
• Oligopotent stem cells can only differentiate into one or two cell types from a small group of cells.

So how might these stem cells give us super powers like in BioShock? That's where the Plasmids come in. In the game, Plasmids are special serums made from modified ADAM stem cells that rewrite a persons genetic code in order to give them new abilities. But surely there's nothing like in the real world, is there?

Weirdly enough, yes there is (or that question I just asked would've been the end of this post). Plasmids are in fact a real thing, although they are a little different to their video game counterparts. Found in many bacteria, plasmids are loops of DNA that are often used as vectors. This means they are used as a gene delivery method, allowing scientists to transport desirable genes into cells. 

So, how does this relate to BioShock's Plasmids? Theoretically, a plasmid could be used to introduce the desire set of genes into a line of stem cells, the introduce these stem cells into a human body. The newly introduced stem cells.would then divide and modify the structure of the body to facilitate these changes. Using a method like this, it could be possible to install new abilities into humans. Whilst fire shooting out of our hands might not be a physical possibility, using plasmids to cure genetic diseases or enhance a person's immune system could well be in our future.

As for shooting bees from your arms, there's not a high chance of this ever happening. Parasitic wasps certainly exist though, although they tend to infect other small insects and the like. As you can see in this video, the relationship is... less mutually beneficial than BioShock.

Ick.