But that week, a virus that disrupts cell reproduction infected one of the bioreactors. The entire plant had to be shut down.

“The bad news is that the virus is targeting a specific process or plant,” says Wieland Simon of Siemens. “The good news is that most industrial processes are not the target of the virus.”

After a lethal plant virus swept through this field trial in Tha Pra, Thailand, the GM papaya trees on the right stood hearty, while the conventional trees on the left fell sickly and fruitless.