Rather than attacking typical plant or animal cells, the bacteriophage uses bacteria as its host for replication. Highly specialized, the bacteriophage lands on a specific part of a specific bacteria, and just like a syringe with legs, injects its genetic material (which is stored in that big bulb on top).

It only takes minutes for viral mRNA to convince bacterial ribosomes to makes its own proteins, transforming the bacteria into a virus factory that, in some circumstances, will literally burst with its own product.

For those who believe that a benevolent supreme being created life, it would be only natural to believe that the bacteriophage was spawned from a equally powerful source of evil.

Of course, Man has long reimagined the bacteriophage as a tool for everything from antibiotic alternatives (see what's called phage therapy, a century old idea) to FDA-approved food sprays. While it's easy to consider nanobots as the future of Man's biological domination, sometimes using the machines that nature has already left lying around is the better bet.

Especially when they're this badass. [Image 1, 2, 3, 4]

* The lead photo is technically a nano-scale model of a T4 bacteriophage. The gallery has real shots.

This week, Gizmodo is exploring the enhanced human future in a segment we call This Cyborg Life. It's about what happens when we treat our body less as a sacred object and more as what it is: Nature's ultimate machine.

A Florida-based company by the name of Sharklet (yes, I laughed at the name, too) came up with this plastic film which "is covered with microscopic diamond-shaped bumps" that prevent all sorts of nasties from building up. It's headed off for FDA testing to be approved for hospital use, but so far it's proven to work pretty well in tests and we'll be seeing it on bathroom door knobs and similar surfaces. Just don't use that as an excuse to skip washing your hands, please. [Pop Sci]

The bacterium, bacillus pasteurii, turns sand into firm sandstone structures very quickly, and the proposed wall could house a sort of lengthy oasis of water and vegetation, to be used by refugees for housing. It's trying to kill two enormous birds with an equally enormous stone: Combating desertification and providing mass amounts of housing for those who need it. The proposal won a prize for sustainable agriculture, but nothing this outrageous is without its problems.

This kind of bacterial change has been performed in very small environments, but has never been tried in as large a scale as the Sahara Desert. Besides the practicality of the project, there are also environmental concerns: This massive a change to the ecosystem could cause problems we can't even foresee, from species extinctions to water shortages. Not to mention a problem that wasn't brought up in the article: How do we get this thing to stop making sandstone? I'm pretty sure experiments with ice-nine didn't turn out so hot.

But for sheer ballsiness on a grandiose scale, this idea is hard to top. Check out more photos and mockups here. [BLDGBLOG]

Storing your razor in this UV sanitizer ensures that 99.9% of germs and bacteria are killed—plus it is portable. Remember that before you start going crotch to face again. You may also want to check out the long line of UV gadgets designed to keep you germ-free even in the nastiest environments. [Brookstone via TRFJ]

According to a recent study by India's Manipal University, users who shared earbuds were found to house harmful bacteria in their ears in 93% of test swabs. Meanwhile, those (prudes) who didn't share earbuds were found to house harmful bacteria in their ears just 8% of the time.

Of course, there could be some other correlations going on that artificially skew the data. Like those who shared earphones were also more likely to share their ears with tongues, piercings and romantic earwax candles. Wait...maybe this sharing earbuds lifestyle isn't so bad after all. [Daily Express]

The professor and his student have shown that "bad" bacteria cannot stick to the surface, which is great, since it's the type of bacteria that cause dental bills. Teeth polished with nanoparticles still may have bacteria on it, but from what I'm reading, can be easily removed. Easier than with brushing, or else this thing isn't really an advance at all.

It's too bad that by the time the technique is productized and deployed to actual dentists, I'll be 50 and have been toothless for 20 years. [Science Daily]

The puzzle, in the way of these things, sounds deceptively simple: sort a stack of different-sized, one-burnt side pancakes so the largest is on the bottom and all unburnt sides are upwards in the fewest number of flips. The science team replicated the problem with DNA fragments as the pancakes, with genes spliced in from a different bacterium to act as the flipping mechanism. By adding yet one more gene, they made their little bacteria brain resistant to antibiotic when it got to the right answer, effectively stopping the "program" from running.

The team notes that the technique, when expanded into much more sophisticated bacterial systems, has enormous potential power as a massively-parallel processor, and billions of the computing cells take up very little space. Sounds like Starfleets living computers may one day be possible... though the idea of creating a pile of goo that can think and is antibiotic-resistant sounds like the stuff of more than one science-fiction nightmare, doesn't it? [Telegraph]

Just keep in mind that there are literally billions of bacteria, virii, and other various insects and arachnids crawling all over your body right now. Reminds us of the Penn & Teller Bullshit episode where they took bacterial cultures from people's faces, hands and butts, and guess which was cleaner?

If you guessed butts, you're right, they were cleaner than faces and especially hands, the most bacteria-laden part of the body. Now forget all you just read and go on about your business. Have a nice day. – Charlie White

Wash your hands, caller [The Daily Mail, via personaltechpipeline]

Best of all, it adheres even when wet. The plan is to use these things as a surgical glue or perhaps we can all fix that vase Peter broke while playing ball in the house even though Alice told us not to. Those poop-looking things in the picture are the bacteria and that stalk holds it to any surface.

Press Release [IU via MedGadget]

Eww! Don't touch that mouse! [The Age]