Blood Music

Blood Music is a science fiction novel by Greg Bear.

Biotechnologist Vergil Ulam creates simple biological computers based on his own lymphocytes ('noocytes'). After his employer orders him to destroy them, Vergil injects them into his own body with the intention of smuggling them out to work on them elsewhere. They attain self-awareness, and Hilarity Ensues.

This novel provides examples of:

 * Apocalypse How:
 * Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence:
 * Assimilation Plot
 * Bio Augmentation: Vergil injecting the biological computers into himself. Augmentation indeed...
 * Empty Piles of Clothing: In most cases, the spreading infection vaporizes humans almost instantly, leaving only their clothes.
 * Fictional Counterpart: Vergil drives into Livermore, California, and passes a Guinevere's Pizza. From the local description, this fictional pizza place is exactly where a Round Table Pizza existed at the time.
 * From a Single Cell:
 * Lego Genetics
 * Nanomachines: Technically biological in origin, but on the nano-scale the line between organism and machine is blurry anyway.
 * The Singularity:
 * Synthetic Plague: Oops.