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By Category: Policy & Initiatives

Controversial bird flu experiments produced no killer virus, scientists say

(Washington Post) Two controversial research projects with the H5N1 bird flu virus haven’t produced a killer bug but have generated useful information, two researchers told scientists and bioethicists gathered here to talk about the benefits and pitfalls of manipulating deadly pathogens. “We can use this information to understand what’s happening in nature,” Yoshihiro Kawaoka of  Read More »

Congress mail threat suspect pleads not guilty to more charges

(Reuters) A registered nurse from the Portland area pleaded not guilty on Thursday to additional charges stemming from more than 100 threatening letters he is suspected of sending to members of Congress and the media in February. Christopher Carlson, 39, has been jailed without bond since his arrest at his home in Vancouver, Washington, on  Read More »

Censoring flu data could raise bioterror threat

(New Scientist) Efforts to keep science secret by “redacting” scientific papers might cause the very problems it is supposed to prevent. That was the warning from leading cyber-security specialist Bruce Schneier to a meeting of flu and security experts this week at the Royal Society in London in the wake of the decision by the  Read More »

Censorship of Flu Research

(BBC News – Audio) Claudia Hammond discusses the issue of censoring science with the author of one of the papers, Ron Fouchier from Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Professor Paul Keim, the acting chair of the National Science Advisory Board in Biosecurity, the US organisation with the power to decide on  Read More »

Little consensus at scientific meeting on releasing results of risky research

(Washington Post) A two-day meeting here brought scientists no closer to resolving the question of whether there are any kinds of experiments whose results should be kept from the public. Arriving at an international consensus about whether scientific journals should occasionally publish censored versions of papers because the full ones might prove useful to terrorists  Read More »

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