History Main / GreyGoo

* ''TheDayTheEarthStoodStill'' remake tries to reboot the Earth with this.

* The Day the Earth Stood Still tries to reboot the Earth with this.

** Better yet, the cells are a fucking BlackBox; ''no one in decades of research has been able to figure out why they won't fucking die!''

* TheDaytheearthstoodstill tries to reboot the Earth with this.

* In OrionsArm humanity's exodus from [[EarthThatWas Old Earth]] was caused by the [[http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4ad4d58752948 Nanodisaster]]. Though the grey goo itself was quickly neutralized by blue goo, The Great Expulsion was more due to the [[AIIsACrapshoot Global Artificial Intelligence Amalgamation]] giving humanity the choice between living under strict ecological rules, getting the hell off of her, or destruction.

They're worse than alien locusts. GreyGoo destroys resources by turning them into more grey goo -- more {{nanomachines}}. It's TheVirus for nonliving things - though it may be able to take down living things as well, and likely will turn them into nonliving things if they're in the wrong place. In theory, you can end up with a planetary body made of nothing ''but'' grey goo. Physical laws regarding energy, thermodynamics and the like stand in the way, but even a partial success in this case is likely to suck for everyone involved.

* In the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_0ZzwptEUI intro cutscene]] of the video game ''[[DeusEx Deus Ex: Invisible War]]'', a terrorist employs a "Nanite detonator" in Chicago, destroying the city.

->'''Ding''': (To Falstaff, King of the Thieves) I hear you're taking over the world.

** ''{{Gargoyles}}'' is also the TropeNamer

* George Zebrowski's ''The Killing Star'' includes weaponized GreyGoo which is used to [[spoiler:pick off the few surviving outposts of humanity.]]

* ''Tasty Planet'' is a game based on Grey Goo where a cleaning agent gets bigger and bigger as you guide it through the levels starting on a Petri Dish until it eats the planet, then the solar system, galaxy, universe, space and time! [[spoiler:Then it explodes and everything starts over.]]

* One of the best examples is Wil McCarthy's "Bloom", a novel set in a future where the last fragments of humanity lives in habitats in the asteroid belt and in jovian orbit, after the entire inner solar system was devoured in a Grey Goo incident. Earth, Venus, and Mars are now large fuzzy balls of nanotech, nanotech solar sails drift aimlessly throughout the system, and occasionally errant strands drift out on the solar winds and try to devour anything they touch in the outer solar system.

* Another über-example would be Charles Stross' "Accelerando", where pretty much the same events as in "Bloom" (above) happened ''deliberately, and for the betterment of mankind''.

* A minor example of this was the nanite colony Wesley Crusher was running in one episode of StarTrekTheNextGeneration. Fortunately, this goo turned sentient and was willing to be moved to a better food source before it disabled the ship.
* ''Tasty Planet'' is a game based on Grey Goo where a cleaning agent gets bigger and bigger as you guide it through the levels starting on a Petri Dish until it eats the planet, then the solar system, galaxy, universe, space and time! [[spoiler:Then it explodes and everything starts over.]]
* ''MassEffect'' has Zaherux, a planet covered in silicon "seas" that has unmanned probes sent to it crash, a popular extranet meme goes that the seas that cover it are actually "disassembler" nanites.
* The Replicators of ''StargateSG1'' are this trope scaled up a bit. (Both in threat and size).

* The ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' episode ''Dark Heart'' dealt with alien nanomachines that were in the process of taking over Earth this way.

* Adam Warren's adaptation of the ''DirtyPair'' revealed that the Earth had been destroyed decades earlier in a massive Grey Goo outbreak, the "Nanoclysm", which led to nanotechnology being regulated and virtually outlawed. The villain of the miniseries planned to use a cache of nanotech to take over {{Heroes R Us}}'s Central Computer, and from there, the known universe. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the Central Computer revealed that it was partially based on something the Nanoclysm left humanity as an apology...]]
* Matrix from ''{{Gargoyles}}'' tries to bring "order" to the world. Dingo made a HeelFaceTurn and convinced Matrix to fight for "Law and Order" (Long story, roll with it). Later, he did provide one of the funniest lines in the comic series on taking over the world, see page quote.
** ''{{Gargoyles}}'' is also the TropeNamer
* Gray Goo is discussed in ''{{GURPS}}: Ultra-Tech'' in a section on Von Neumann machines and points out the waste heat of the goo eating a planet is likely a more pressing threat than being eaten by it. On the up side they require extremely high level technology and are expensive to make, on the down side some versions might be able to fly or travel through space.
* Biological version in ''{{Outpost 2}}: Divided Destiny''. A terraforming microbe runs wildly out of control, breaking down organic matter, among other things, and forcing both colonies on the planet to try to evacuate-one of the rare versions in which the Goo truly is unstoppable, though one colony can delay it briefly, and the omnipresent threat during the campaign.
* In ''HostileWaters'', the "alien" antagonists have a [[strike: grey goo]] Disassembler cannon. It fires at a city and reduces it to mush. Why it stops, they don't explain, but that's all the better for you.
** Actually, it's up to you to blow up the cooling radiators before it fires its third salvo and destroys Central, the world capital. Once you do that, the next shot blows it to hell and spreads disassemblers throughout their base.
* The Modular Man from TomStrong is a large-scale example of this. Each individual module is about the size of your head. Once he gets to Venus, though, he multiplies until he has something closer to the proper GreyGoo appearance.
* In the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_0ZzwptEUI intro cutscene]] of the video game [[DeusEx Deus Ex: Invisible War]], a terrorist employs a "Nanite detonator" in Chicago, destroying the city.
* A strange example from RealLife which has elements of the GreyGoo scenario: In the 1950's scientists managed to isolate an immortal cancer cell line (that is, undying cells that could be grown outside of the human body) which they named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa HeLa]], after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks Henrietta Lacks]], an unfortunate woman who had died from the cancer. Scientists at the time were trying to isolate and grow normal human cells outside of the body but were having no luck. Within a short period of time, however, they noticed many of the normal cells suddenly being transformed into cancer cells. This puzzled scientists until they realized that the new cells were actually [=HeLa=] cells that had contaminated the normal cultures. ([=HeLa=] cells were so durable that they were difficult to get rid of via sterilization and the tiniest bit could convert whatever normal tissue they came into contact with. ) [=HeLa=] cells soon spread throughout the world and even today scientists have problems dealing with [=HeLa=] contamination of their cell cultures. Fortunately for humanity, the [=HeLa=] cells quickly die out or result in only weak tumors when injected into a living human body. (Yes, there were people crazy enough to try this out.) Even more fortunately for humanity, the [=HeLa=] cells ability to grow outside the human body led to it being a useful tool in the development of the Polio vaccine, in cancer research and in the testing of drugs, cosmetics and many other substances. A rare case where GreyGoo actually turned out to benefit humanity.
** Better yet, the cells are a fucking BlackBox; ''no one in decades of research has been able to figure out why they won't fucking die!''
** Sad note: [=HeLa=] cells benefited humanity but not Henrietta's impoverished and undereducated family; when they first heard about the immortal cells they thought scientists had her ''actual body'' being kept alive somewhere. When a woman wanted to talk to them about Henrietta for [[http://rebeccaskloot.com/the-immortal-life/ a book]], they initially hung up on her because they thought she was another scientist looking to exploit them.
* One of BenTen's alien forms is Upgrade the Galvanic Mechomorph, a piece of GreyGoo from a planet of sentient GreyGoo that has the ability to separate itself into smaller, independent entities that get less intelligent the more they split. They were created by the series' resident SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, the Galvans, but developed a mind of their own.
* A failed pilot for a TV series called ''Doorways'' by GeorgeRRMartin featured a parallel dimension where, yep, nanomachines used to eat up oil spillages went and ate all the oil. This scenario was the result of ExecutiveMeddling - G.R.R.M's original script (and the one found in his "Dreamsongs" retrospective compilation) featured the parallel Earth as a [[SingleBiomePlanet Winter World]], but this was apparently too bleak for a first episode.
* A meta example: How many tabs do you have open, and how many new tabs spawn from each of those tabs?
* DeathFromTheSkies by Phil Plait presents a berserker Von Neumann probe, which is essentially grey goo on a cosmic scale.
* The old LightsOut radio serial had "Chicken Heart", a biological grey goo that started out as a cell culture from [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a chicken heart]] and turned into some kind of mindlessly spreading cancer blob that quickly overwhelmed the research lab, university, and city that it was created in. [[ItGetsWorse Even worse]], [[OnlySaneMan the researcher responsible]], escaping with a reporter in a plane, knows [[NukeEm exactly how to stop it]], but [[TheCassandra the authorities refuse.]] [[WeirdAlEffect Somewhat more famous]] is BillCosby's Jell-O-soaked retelling as he remembers hearing it on the radio as a kid.
* An episode of the 1980's animated TheIncredibleHulk involved a scientist bioengineering a BlobMonster that could eat literally anything except the special glass of its container, and would get bigger the more it ate. Of ''course'' the glass breaks and it starts eating Gamma Base. ''Fortunately,'' it turns out that the one thing it's allergic to is gamma radiation, which the Hulk constantly emits.
* Grey goo has completely devoured Mercury by the time of ''{{Gunnm}}'' (AKA ''Battle Angel Alita'').

* In Scott Westerfeld's book [[{{Uglies}} Specials]], the main characters break out of a weapons storage facility using nanotechnology-based silver goo (much more flashy and dramatic than plain old gray goo, to paraphrase the author).

* One of the Special Projects in ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' shows the video of several containers placed on the site of a battle, littered with debris and dead bodies. The containers open, releasing nanites that look like glowing goo. They proceed to consume everything in sight, including the dead, and use the materials to create a brand-new HoverTank.

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* The 'exploded post-novel' ''How to Mutate and Take Over the World'' by [[MondoVanilli R. U. Sirius]] and St. Jude Milhon ends with a GreyGoo accidentally being released from a food factory, which turns any organic substance it touches into key-lime pie filling.