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By Category: Biotechnology

We need to fix the holey biosafety net

(New Scientist) PHYSICS lost its innocence on 16 July 1945, when researchers involved in the Manhattan Project witnessed the first detonation of an atomic bomb. Years later, Robert Oppenheimer recalled that he was haunted by a verse from the Hindu scripture, …</b

January 16, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Biotechnology, and Policy & Initiatives
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The nuclear, biological and climate threat – 2011 reviewed

(EurekAlert!) Gerald Epstein, director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Security Policy (CSIS) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, says that 2011 saw progress on approaches to address biological threats posed by non-state groups at both the Seventh Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Review Conference and the G8 Global Partnership Against the Read More »

January 9, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Biological Weapons, Biotechnology, Bioterrorism, Countermeasures, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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An Engineered Doomsday

(New York Times) In the future, it is imperative that any such experiments be rigorously analyzed for potential dangers — preferably through an international review mechanism, but also by governmental funding agencies — before they are undertaken, not after the fact as is happening in this case. The most frightening research was done by scientists Read More »

January 9, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biological Weapons, Biotechnology, International, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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Experimenting with oversight with more bite?

(Practical Ethics) It was probably hard for the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) to avoid getting plenty of coal in its Christmas stockings this year, sent from various parties who felt NSABB were either stifling academic freedom or not doing …

January 9, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biotechnology, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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David Hoffman: On biology: promise and peril

(Foreign Policy) We live in an age of breathtaking advances in the life sciences. Achievements in sequencing, or plotting the genetic blueprint of an organism, have been astounding, and may lead to great benefits in public health and medicine. But biological research can be dual-use: that which improves the lot of mankind can also be Read More »