In the hard science fiction novel Blood Music, Bear explores the far-reaching impact of biotechnological research gone awry. Vergil I. Ulam is a researcher in cutting-edge biochip technology, described as "the incorporation of protein molecular circuitry with silicon electronics." This work on genes is believed to have important medical applications. Vergil's scientific quest is outside the specific goals of his employer, who claims ethical and governmental restrictions on projects where there is a risk of creating new plagues.

Vergil is ordered to destroy his cultures, which consist of "autonomous organic computers," "the world's tiniest machines." They are engineered, altered microbes incorporated into white cells — lymphocytes — from his own blood.

When management puts pressure on him, then fires him, Vergil irresponsibly injects himself with his cell culture in order to preserve it. Integral to this novel is the question of social responsibility on the part...