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Grey Goo (view source)

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For some reason, most of the time these specifically were created to clean up oil spills.
 
Can cause [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]] -- specifically, Type 3b or 4 on [[Apocalypse How]].
 
Compare [[Blob Monster]].
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== Comicbooks ==
* Adam Warren's adaptation of the ''[[Dirty Pair (Light Novel)|Dirty Pair]]'' 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...}}
* The Modular Man from ''[[Tom Strong (Comic Book)|Tom Strong]]'' 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 [[Grey Goo]] appearance.
* [[Transmetropolitan]] mentions it as a possible weapon if the commonly-used "makers" are reprogrammed. The standard MO for handling a "grey goo" scenario is to release blue goo to contain the grey goo and restrict its damage to a small area. One brief mention is made of someone who lost his legs because he decided to (and succeeded) shut off the grey goo instead of releasing the blue goo.
* ''[[The Filth]]'' features this type of creatures, but portrays them in a very sympathetic light during the stages of their evolution. The more they spread, the more the world is seen from their perspective.
* {{spoiler|What happened to [[Darkwing Duck (Comic Bookcomics)|Negaduck]] after [[Literal Split Personality|being hit by the Tron-Splitter]] at the end of "Crisis On Infinite Darkwings".}}
 
 
== Films ==
* ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' remake tries to reboot the Earth with this. It was more a "Grey Cloud" than Goo, but same strategy.
* ''[[G.I. Joe: theThe Rise of Cobra]]'' had "Red/Black" weaponized Goo (which is [[Sickly Green Glow|green for the viewer's convenience]]), which ate any metal it came into contact with. Thankfully, the designers were smart enough to build them with cutoff switches which neutralized them instantly.
 
 
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* A rather spooky example [http://qntm.org/gorge presented here as a story], {{spoiler|which shows us why you should just let the gray goo be...}}
** And played with in [http://qntm.org/transit this story on the same site], {{spoiler|where the sentient gray goo triggers the nanoapocalypse to ''save'' humanity from an impending asteroid collision.}}
* Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski's ''[[The Killing Star (Literature)|The Killing Star]]'' includes weaponized [[Grey Goo]] which is used to {{spoiler|pick off one of the few surviving outposts of humanity.}}
* In Greg Bear's {{spoiler|''Forge of God''}}, this is done deliberately and systematically by a beligerant alien race, to humanity as well as at least one other race. The sequel, ''Anvil of Stars'', is the story of a handful of the survivors of Earth -- specifically, the children -- seeking out the race that destroyed Earth, to enact [[Earthshattering Kaboom|the Law]].
** In Greg's ''[[Blood Music]]'', the Green Goo is not nanotechnology, but biotechnology, but operates in basically the same fashion. The "noocytes" consume all the biomass in North America, converting it to more noocytes. {{spoiler|It turns out that all the living creatures who are assimilated are also recorded and "alive" in a new kind of reality, similar to "Bloom" above.}}
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== Live-Action TV ==
* A minor example of this was the nanite colony Wesley Crusher was running in one episode of ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]''. Fortunately, this goo turned sentient and was willing to be moved to a better food source before it disabled the ship.
* The Replicators of ''[[Stargate SG -1]]'' are this trope scaled up to lego size. When they eventually [[Mechanical Evolution|evolved]] to silver goo, their diet changed from "any kind of metal" to "[[Unobtainium|neutronium]] only", thus keeping the new model [[Too Awesome to Use|a rarity]].
* A failed pilot for a TV series called ''Doorways'' by [[George RRR. R. Martin]] 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 [[Executive Meddling]] -- G.R.R.M's original script (and the one found in his "Dreamsongs" retrospective compilation) featured the parallel Earth as a [[Single Biome Planet|Winter World]], but this was apparently too bleak for a first episode.
 
 
== Radio ==
* The old [[Lights Out]] radio serial had "Chicken Heart", a biological grey goo that started out as a cell culture from [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|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. [[It Gets Worse|Even worse]], [[Only Sane Man|the researcher responsible]], escaping with a reporter in a plane, knows [[Nuke'Em|exactly how to stop it]], but [[The Cassandra|the authorities refuse.]] [[Weird Al Effect|Somewhat more famous]] is [[Bill Cosby]]'s Jell-O-soaked retelling as he remembers hearing it on the radio as a kid.
 
 
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* 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.
* ''Centauri Knights'', a far future/HumongousMecha sourcebook for ''[[Big Eyes Small Mouth]]'', takes place on a dead alien planet colonized by humans. According to the [[Game Master]] information in the back, the reason the planet was vacant was because an ancient war resulted in a [[Grey Goo]] superweapon accidentally being unleashed upon the planet (the game even explicitly uses the term "Grey Goo" to explain the phenomenon).
* Virus Bombs of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' work on a similar principle to the Red or Black Goo scenario noted above. The Imperium utilise them in dire situations when [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|a problem can only be solved by destroying a planet]].
 
 
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* In ''[[Hostile Waters]]'', the "alien" antagonists have a <s> grey goo</s> 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.
* In the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_0ZzwptEUI intro cutscene] of the video game ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War (Video Game)|Deus Ex Invisible War]]'', a terrorist employs a "Nanite detonator" in Chicago, destroying the city.
* One of the Special Projects in ''[[Sid MeiersMeier's Alpha Centauri]]'' 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 [[Hover Tank]].
* Tiberium in the C&C universe can be seen a slow-acting example of it. It needs around half a century to engulf a significant portion of the Earth.
* Grey goo missiles called the "Nano Virus" are a high-level planetary siege weapon in ''[[Sword of the Stars]]''. It is amusingly classified as a bio-weapon, meaning you have to go through several tiers worth of gene modification to access it. The Nano Virus is harmless to organics, but the planet's industrial output will be heavily damaged and it will wipe out an AI rebellion as if they were living creatures hit by a regular bio weapon. It is the only bio weapon that will affect the Zuul, since their machinery is made of the same metal as everyone else's.
* ''[[Parasite Eve]]'' features massive amounts of Pink Goo. The [[Big Bad]] is actually a [[Patient Zero]] infected with intelligent pink goo by accident. Every enemy in the game was created by the pink goo. If you go on to the Chrysler Building in the EX game, the building itself is infected with the pink goo (which is the in-world reasons that mode has random maps) and pink goo is literally everywhere.
* A grey goo like attack is possible in [[Supreme Commander 2]]. The Cybran Nation can upgrade their engineers to have weapons, by doing this and building nothing but engineers you will get an ever growing blob of engineers that will automatically shoot every enemy in sight and use the remains to build more engineers. [http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/06/20/engineering-victory-in-supreme-commander-2/ Full instructions here].
* In [[Super Smoke|Smoke]]'s ending in ''[[Mortal Kombat Armageddon (Video Game)|Mortal Kombat Armageddon]]'', the power of [[Elemental Personification|Blaze]] causes his nanobots to go into overdrive, consuming all of Edenia and replacing it with a sentient mass of grey goo that calls itself Smoke.
* The Vasari from ''[[Sins of a Solar Empire]]'', who specialize in Nanotechnology, have ships that are able to throw blobs of destructive nanobots at enemy ships.
 
 
== Webcomics ==
* [http://xkcd.com/865/ This] page of [[Xkcd (Webcomic)|Xkcd]] jokes about how [[I Pv 6]] is perfect in that the nanobots will only be able to devour about half the planet before they run out of addresses.
* Hostile nanoswarms are so common in ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'' that there's standard-issue tactics and equipment to stop them; people worried about nanobot infection drink nanotech-fighting chemicals to control them, "nanofilm" is routinely employed to control rogue nanobot swarms, and worst comes to worst, the nanobots will be isolated by ubiquitous AI with gravity-control technology. <!-- If anyone knows what the employer's name is, feel free to add it in. Go Go Wiki Magic! -->
{{quote| '''Employer of the month:''' We've all been drinking Nanneze like it was Ovalquik.<br />
'''Tagon:''' Careful, that stuff'll kill you. <br />
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== Web Originals ==
* In the late 20th century of the ''[[Chaos Timeline (Literature)|Chaos Timeline]]'', nukes are scrapped because nanobots made them obsolete. The so-called [[Gratuitous German|Braunschleim scenario]] is the casual armageddon scenario everybody fears. {{spoiler|On the eve of [[World War Three]], this fear urges a bunch of [[Playful Hacker|Playful Hackers]] to seize control over the military and the rest of the world, in order to prevent the danger of nano annihilation.}}
* In ''[[Orions Arm]]'', humanity's exodus from [[Earth-That-Was|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 [[AI Is a Crapshoot|Global Artificial Intelligence Amalgamation]] giving humanity the choice between living under strict ecological rules, getting the hell off of her, or [[Gaia's Vengeance|destruction]].
 
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* The ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' episode "Dark Heart" dealt with alien nanomachines that were in the process of taking over Earth this way.
* Matrix from ''[[Gargoyles]]'', a sentient mass of nonobots created by Fox's mother (who mentions the grey good scenario by name) in Australia, tries to bring "order" to the world. Dingo made a [[Heel Face Turn]] and convinced Matrix to fight for "Law and Order" (Long story involving the Aborigine [[Spirit World|Dreamtime]], roll with it). Later, he did provide one of the funniest lines in the comic series on taking over the world, see page quote.
* One of ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'''s alien forms is Upgrade the Galvanic Mechomorph, a piece of [[Grey Goo]] from a planet of sentient [[Grey Goo]] 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 [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]], the Galvans, but developed a mind of their own.
* An episode of the 1980's animated ''[[The Incredible Hulk]]'' involved a scientist bioengineering a [[Blob Monster]] 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.
* One episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' features nanobots destroying Townsville, though they didn't seem to be making more of themself, just ripping everything that wasn't alive to dust.
* ''[[Futurama]]'': Bender becomes this in one episode after installing a [[Matter Replicator]] that makes two smaller duplicates.
** ''[[Inverted]]'' in another episode, in which some nanobots released on a deserted planet first eat some waste oil, then start trying to eat [[Fan Service|clothes]], but soon get bored of that and create an entire ecosystem made of nanobots instead of cells. Where the necessary mass came from is [[Artistic License Physics|left as an exercise for the reader.]]
* In ''[[Godzilla: theThe Series]]'', one of the first [[Monsters of the Week]] is a colony of self-replicating petroleum-eating [[Nanomachines]] that, inevitably, goes out of control and turns into a Zilla-sized shapeshifting blob on a feeding frenzy.
* The G1 [[Transformers]] episode ''Krimzeek'' involved a highly specialized electricity eating spark creature, splitting into new copies of itself as it ate more and more current.
 
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