Limit of Vision — Linda Nagata

Ethics and evolution collide in a tale of runaway biotechnology:

From the award-winning author of Pacific Storm and The Last Good Man comes a compelling science fiction thriller in which an experiment gone awry could lead to the next phase of human evolution.

Virgil Copeland is a young scientist working in a lab in Honolulu. With his research team, he's developed an artificial life-form known as "LOVs," an acronym for Limit Of Vision, because in size LOVs are just at the boundary of what the human eye can easily see.

LOVs contain bioengineered human neurons. They enhance brain function when implanted in test animals. Experimentation on humans is, of course, highly illegal. But it's the nature of brilliant and ambitious young minds to ignore the rules. Believing the LOVs to be perfectly safe, Virgil and his team experiment on themselves, using implanted LOVs to enhance their own cognitive abilities -- until tragedy strikes, and the experiment is exposed.

In a desperate attempt to preserve the last of the LOVs, Virgil flees Honolulu. He takes refuge in the steamy Mekong Delta, where he finds unexpected allies: a maverick businessman, a defiantly independent journalist, and an artificial intelligence charged with overseeing the welfare of a tribe of homeless children. Together this unlikely group resolves to preserve and nurture Virgil's LOVs -- only to find themselves swept up in a whirlwind of runaway biotechnology, with compounding consequences ever more bizarre and unforeseeable.