Here's one right out of science fiction. Or actually, it reminds me of that movie from a few years ago called Deep Blue Sea. Do you remember that one? It was pretty lame, but I liked the premise. Scientists had genetically modified sharks to make them smarter...I think to find a cure for Alzheimer’s or something...anyway, once the sharks become clever, they decide it's a whole lot of fun to kill humans. Like I said, nice premise. Simple. Easy to digest. Scary.

Well, now here comes something similar right out of the pages of New Scientist magazine. Turns out, according to this piece in Salon, that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the secretive skunk works of the Pentagon, is trying to figure out a way to put neural implants into the brains of sharks in the hope that they might control the animals and get them to do their bidding. These sharks, one would guess, might even be mounted with fricken lasers on their heads to allow them to follow and shoot down ships, subs and terrorist scuba divers...or just those who make us angry.

How close have they come so far? Well, implants in a dogfish allowed them to steer the animal in captivity via electrodes keyed to "phantom odors." That's kind of like getting a fat guy to walk through a house by making him think there are hamburgers cooking in the next room.

The Salon piece goes into the effort in greater depth, but I couldn't resist posting about it, because it just sounds too crazy, too fascinating.