Margaret Atwood's latest novel, "Oryx and Crake," is set in a future where multinational power has created a dystopia of genetically engineered organisms living in a globally warmed world.
At one point in the novel, the scientist Crake reminds his friend Jimmy about how dentists went out of business when a GM mouthwash was introduced. The GM mouthwash contained benevolent bacteria that live in the mouth and out-compete the harmful bacteria that cause tooth decay.
Like this GM mouthwash, many of Atwood's ideas are eminently plausible, and the book is all the more compelling for them. It's "speculative fiction," says Atwood. But just how plausible her ideas are, and how likely to occur, is confirmed this week in a leading U.S. science journal.