Limit of Vision is a 2001 science fiction book by American writer Linda Nagata. Like many of Nagata's novels, it contains themes of nanotechnology and genetic engineering, as well as government and corporate corruption, in this case as suppressors of positive and liberating transhumanizing technology. Limit of Vision is about a rogue colony of artificial, independently viable neural cells called asterids, which escape from containment aboard a corporate research lab in low Earth orbit. Plummeting to Earth, the colony's habitat lands off the coast of Vietnam, where it is picked up by a freelance journalist. The journalist is helped by a group of young children living under the protection of a nearly sentient computer program, who see an opportunity to benefit by cooperating with the asterids in a form of symbiosis. The corporate lab, Equasys, joins with the UN to eradicate the asterids. Plot summary Virgil Copeland and Randall Panwar are forced to present a project review to the senior staff of Equatorial Systems, and their fellow scientist Gabrielle Villanti fails to attend. Panwar struggles with the presentation, in which they present their research about asterids (artificial neurons) known as LOVs. Although LOVs showed promise in initial experiments, the enhanced intelligence of the test animals was offset by the uncontrolled growth of the LOVs, which eventually killed their hosts. LOVs were therefore made dependent on two amino acids: nopaline for metabolism and octopine for reproduction. In the second phase of the experiment, the LOVs were encased in silicate shells. These LOVs were able to safely interact with the test animals, but an unrelated incident at a rival biotechnology company prompted a government crackdown, and the LOVs were exported to the Hammer, a space station in low Earth orbit. Panwar's presentation is interrupted by news of an incident at the lab. Gabrielle, Panwar, and Virgil had illegally implanted LOV clusters on their foreheads to communicate with the LOV colonies in their care, and Gabrielle had entered a fugue state and died of exhaustion while connected to their latest experimental subject. Their administrators discover Virgil attempting to surreptitiously remove the LOVs from Gabrielle's corpse, and the two surviving scientists are put into quarantine. However, the LOV colony is more intelligent and resourceful than anticipated, and overcomes several obstacles to colonize key areas of the Hammer. When it learns what has happened, it takes control of several drones and severs the lab module