Why Bird Flu Research Is Dangerous

Image: The H5N1 virus could mutate to a deadlier form and spread to humans

Bird Flu 'Could Mutate To Cause Deadly Human Pandemic' -- BBC

The H5N1 bird flu virus could change into a form able to spread rapidly between humans, scientists have warned.

Researchers have identified five genetic changes that could allow the virus to start a deadly pandemic.

Writing in the journal Science, they say it would be theoretically possible for these changes to occur in nature.

A US agency has tried unsuccessfully to ban publication of parts of the research fearing it could be used by terrorists to create a bioweapon.

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My Comment: This info should make any potential bio-terrorist happy .... they now have the blue print to cause a pandemic.

How Science Is Countering Biological And Chemical Threats

Bio-terror A versatile material that neutralizes a range of biological and chemical agents could save time and lives in the event of a terrorist attack or accident.

New Versatile Polymer Counters Both Chemical and Biological Threats -- Popular Science

Because terrorists rarely announce the technical details of their nefarious intentions beforehand, the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction is not only great, it's multifaceted. So a team from the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine has synthesized a polyurethane fiber mesh that is as variable as the terrorist threat. By mimicking biological tissues like the skin that respond to shifting environments, the a multifunctional polymer can decontaminate a range of both biological agents and chemical toxins.

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My Comment: Let's hope the day never comes when this technology must be used.

Keeping Genes Out Of Terrorists' Hands

Photo: Low standards could mean that hazardous genes get through screening more easily. W. Philpott/Reuters

From Nature:

Gene-synthesis industry at odds over how to screen DNA orders.

A standards war is brewing in the gene-synthesis industry. At stake is the way that the industry screens orders for hazardous toxins and genes, such as pieces of deadly viruses and bacteria. Two competing groups of companies are now proposing different sets of screening standards, and the results could be crucial for global biosecurity.

"If you have a company that persists with a lower standard, you can drag the industry down to a lower level," says lawyer Stephen Maurer of the University of California, Berkeley, who is studying how the industry is developing responsible practices. "Now we have a standards war that is a race to the bottom."

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My Comment: This is a topic that I am ignorant of. But my brother .... who has a Doctorate in Chemistry and who has worked in the pharmaceutical industry exploring these topics for he past 20 years tells me to be afraid .... be very afraid.

Hmmmm .... OK .... I am afraid.

Top Army Biowar Lab Suspends Research After Toxin-Tracking Scare (Updated)

From The Danger Room:

When the Pentagon needs to handle the deadliest biowarfare threats, it turns to the labs of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Maryland. It's the only place in the American military complex equipped to handle the worst of the worst diseases -- those that have no cure and can are transmissible by air. Which makes it extremely unnerving, that the place had to suspend biodefense research on Friday, "after discovering apparent problems with the system of accounting for high-risk microbes and biomaterials."

That's the scoop from the new ScienceInsider blog, which notes that "the lab has been under intense scrutiny since August, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation named former USAMRIID researcher Bruce Ivins as the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks."

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My Comment: The first warnings came last year that nuclear weapons were not being handled properly. News is now filtering about missing nerve gas stockpiles .... maybe. Now .... questions on the handling of biological agents are circulating.

It appears that there is a culture of sloppiness and a lack of accountability on the handling of WMDs. But what is very troubling .... is that the U.S. has one of the best track records in the handling of this stuff. If they have the best .... who has the worse?

Al-Qaeda Cell Killed By Black Death 'Was Developing Biological Weapons'

Hideout: Terrorists in Ouzou, Algeria, above, have been forced to flee the plague.
Photo from The Daily Mail

Form The Telegraph:

An al-Qaeda cell killed by the Black Death may have been developing biological weapons when it was infected, it has been reported.

The group of 40 terrorists were reported to have been killed by the plague at a training camp in Algeria earlier this month.

It was initially believed that they could have caught the disease through fleas on rats attracted by poor living conditions in their forest hideout.

But there are now claims the cell was developing the disease as a weapon to use against western cities.

Experts said that the group was developing chemical and biological weapons.

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More News On Al Qaeda's Development Of
Biologiacl/Chemical Weapons

Plague allegedly killed Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb terrorists -- Counter Terrorism Blog
Report: Al Qaeda Group Bungled Test of Unconventional Weapon -- FOX News
40 al-Qaeda terrorists dead after exposure to the plague: report -- National Post
Black Death kills 40 al-Qaeda fighters in Algeria -- Al Arabiya
When al Qaeda Germ Warfare Goes Terribly Right -- Jawa Report
Al Qaeda hit by Black Death fear as medieval plague kills 40 terrorists at training camp -- Daily Mail
The Plague of Al-Qaeda is Plagued -- American Thinker
Al-Qaida's Threat Is Still With Us -- Investors Business Daily