Clarke warned us, in "2061: Odissey 3" (Beware: spoilers):
> The doctor seemed to be struggling for words.
'What, dammit?'
'Something came up out, of the water, Like a parrot beak, but about a hundred times bigger. It took -
Rosie - with one snap, and disappeared. We have some impressive company here; even if we could
breathe outside, I certainly wouldn't recommend swimming -'
'Bridge to Captain,' said the officer on duty, 'Big disturbance in the water - camera three - I'll give you
the picture.'
'That's the thing I saw!' cried the doctor. He felt a sudden chill at the inevitable, ominous thought: I hope it's not back for
more.
Suddenly, a vast bulk broke through the surface of the ocean and arched into the sky. For a moment,
the whole monstrous shape was suspended between air and water.
The familiar can be as shocking as the strange - when it is in the wrong place. Both captain and doctor
exclaimed simultaneously: 'It's a shark!'
There was just time to notice a few subtle differences - in addition to the monstrous parrot-beak -
before the giant crashed back into the sea. There was an extra pair of fins - and there appeared to be no
gills. Nor were there any eyes, but on either side of the beak there were curious protuberances that might
be some other sense organs.
'Convergent evolution, of course,' said the doctor. 'Same problems, same solutions, on any planet.
Look at Earth. Sharks, dolphins, ichthyosaurs - all oceanic predators must have the same basic design.
That beak puzzles me, though -'
'What's it doing now?'
The creature had surfaced again, but now it was moving very slowly, as if exhausted after that one
gigantic leap. In fact, it seemed to be in trouble - even in agony; it was beating its tail against the sea,
without attempting to move in any definite direction.
Suddenly, it vomited its last meal, turned belly up, and lay wallowing lifelessly in the gentle swell.
'Oh my God,' whispered the Captain, his voice full of revulsion. 'I think I know what's happened.'
'Totally alien biochemistries,' said the doctor; even he seemed shaken by the sight. 'Rosie's claimed
one victim, after all.'
The Sea of Galilee was
Not that I recall — closest I can think of would either be TOS evil twin made from antimatter, the mirror universe in general, or Nelix' coffee.
But I have seen it as a short story about how the world ends, some synthetic bacteria that was meant to be reversed chirality for safety, but eventually it went wild and could eat everything without itself being eaten by anything.
I don't think so; I've looked up the story, and what I remember doesn't match the setting of the summary I've seen of that novel — assuming it was the Peter Watts novel, because while I kinda assumed you wouldn't have meant the Lisa Fipps novel of the same name, there may be others with that name which I just don't know about.
I also saw a 2-part documentary recently about someone who caught a highly contagious virus (the so called "rage" virus) that led to disastrous consequences. We know these risks are real.
> At long last, we have finally created the Torment Nexus from the classic sci-fi novel "Don't Create the Torment Nexus".