A Cry Heard Round The World: Kim Sun-Il died desperate and alone, but he did not die unheard.
Looking At And Longing For Mars: Reflections on a childhood dream.
A Robot May Not Harm a Human Being. Is The Opposite True?: Thoughts on the future rights of artificial intelligence.
Long After The Boys Of Summer Have Gone: What makes a relationship work?
Winter Of Our Feline Discontent: What the cat wants, the cat gets. But what DOES it want?
To Tell The Truth: There may be no honor among thieves, but can't we find it even in a few good men and women?
Should The Human Brain Retire?: We know that we cannot win forever. We know that machines will continue to improve. So why don't we let the human brain retire gracefully now, with honors?
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Published: Sep 16, 2005 01:41 PM
Thu - October 30, 2003
Terrorism Blinded Me With Science: Researchers Creating Ultra-Deadly
Viruses
Someone has.
New Scientist reports that a scientist funded by the U.S. government has deliberately created an extremely deadly form of mousepox, a relative of smallpox, through genetic engineering:
- Buller has engineered a mousepox strain that kills 100 per cent of vaccinated mice, even when they were also treated with the antiviral drug cidofovir. A monoclonal antibody that mops up IL-4 did save some, however ...
Buller has also constructed a cowpox virus containing the mouse IL-4 gene, which is about to be tested on mice at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Cowpox infects people, but Buller says the IL-4 protein is species-specific and would not affect the human immune system. The experiments are being done at the second-highest level of biological containment.
Is research of this kind necessary or advisable?
Proponents say that terrorists are developing bioweapons and that continued research offers our only hope to prepare to fight pandemics. They may be right—but I'm not convinced. Fear of terrorism justifies almost every government program these days. Yet we haven't yet blown up the Bay Bridge, breached Hoover Dam, or sown American croplands with Agent Orange to explore how terrorists might attack these targets.
We don't know what kind of bioweapon terrorists are developing or where the terrorists who develop them will live. It is always possible, though unlikely, that homegrown super-viruses could escape the lab, could be taken from the lab by terrorists or lab workers paid by terrorists, could be developed by terrorists with the aid of disgruntled lab employees, or could be created using published lab research. To create deadly knowledge is to risk its abuse.
Several regular readers of this blog are bioscientists so I'm curious where you stand on the issue. Am I off base?
Update: For another perspective on this issue, read Future Pundit.