Siri… find me directions to the killer robot conference

Image courtesy of http://catsondrones.tumblr.com

Despite a rash of positive coverage –extoling the positive possible uses of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs for short)– the image of the drone as a killer robot is back (cue the Terminator references) and with a vengeance. This week the U.N. (yes, the United Nations) is taking up the issue of a proposed ban on killer robots. As Ishaan Tharoor of WashPo points out, while Human Rights Watch and a number of other international NGOs banded together about a year ago to launch the international campaign against killer robots.

Contamination in vitro, in vivo

Contamination in vitro, in vivo

All of these journal, magazine, and newspaper headlines call our attention to a problem—a crisis even—of contamination, invasion, and toxicity.  Some of them are referring to contamination between species of plants and animals.  Others decry the contamination of human cells.  But what does it mean that when we come together to talk about cell and tissue cultures or environmental conservation, we simply can’t seem to get out of the language of invasion and contamination?