Recent News

By Category: Biosafety

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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Don’t censor life-saving science

(Nature.com) As we prepared our results for publication, the US government convened the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), which advises the community about research using agents that pose threats to national security or public health. …

January 16, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biosafety, Public Health, and Research
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Chicago’s new bio-attack response facility

(Homeland Security NewsWire) Chicago is preparing itself for a biological attack with the recent unveiling of a new 40,000 square-foot, fourteen story state-of the-art medical decontamination facility. Last Friday the Robert R. McCormick Foundation Center for Advanced Emergency Response at the Rush University Medical Center opened its doors for the first time.

January 13, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Livermore Lab bioweapons center debated in court

(San Francisco Chronicle) Research at the center is intended to help the government detect biological pathogens such as anthrax, plague, brucellosis and Q fever. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the facility in 2006, saying the Department of Energy’s environmental assessment had failed to study the possibility that terrorists could cause a release Read More »

January 13, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biological Weapons, Biosafety, Bioterrorism, and Research
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Bird flu and the future of biosecurity

(Nature) Amy Patterson, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Science Policy, which administers the NSABB, is taking the lead on the bird flu issue for the agency. Nature asks her what led to the NSABB’s decision and what will come out of it.