Best-selling novelist and Wired contributing editor Wil McCarthy joins Art Bell to discuss Hacking Matter, quantum dots, artificial atoms, and programmable matter after a detailed report from Linda Moulton Howe on the emerging SARS crisis. Scientists have confirmed a new coronavirus is responsible, and Russian experts publicly speculate the virus could be man-made. Linda interviews doctors from Toronto to Rotterdam who describe the disease spreading through close contact, respiratory droplets, and now potentially through urine and feces. A North Carolina woman nearly dies from SARS despite never traveling to Asia, and her hospital allegedly conceals the diagnosis to avoid publicity.

McCarthy explains how quantum dots can trap electrons to create artificial atoms, effectively producing programmable matter that could change its color, conductivity, and thermal properties with the flip of a switch. He describes programmable houses with walls that become windows, ceilings that simulate sunlight, and solar cells reaching 50 percent efficiency.

Art presses McCarthy on the dangers of such technology, drawing parallels to computer viruses and hacking. McCarthy acknowledges that malicious actors could theoretically reprogram materials in buildings or embed hidden sensors, but argues the technology carries less catastrophic risk than self-replicating nanotechnology.