1. The science of building small machines includes not only biochips but tiny machines often called nanobots. How close are engineers to building tiny machines that can be used in the human body? What uses for the machines are predicted? What are the dangers? Do any of the dangers resemble what happens in "Blood Music"?

2. "Blood Music" shares with many other works of fiction the Frankenstein theme, an idea derived from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus. What is the "Frankenstein theme"? How does "Blood Music" resemble Shelley's novel?

3. What other fiction, motion pictures, or television shows have depicted a body being taken over by microbes that eventually start spreading to the rest of the world? How do they compare to "Blood Music"?

4. Some research laboratories deal with very dangerous microbes. There are, for instance, two laboratories (in England and...