Recent News

By Category: Research

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
Share

Debate Persists Over Publishing Bird Flu Studies

(NPR) A federal advisory board has urged scientific journals not to publish the research from two labs that have developed an airborne flu virus. Microbiologist Vincent Racaniello discusses why the move sets a bad precedent. Biosecurity expert D.A. Henderson talks about the risks of publishing the research. This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I’m Ira Flatow. Our Read More »

January 9, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
Share

Infectious disease lab under construction in Winnipeg

(Journal of Commerce) A vacant former laboratory building in Winnipeg’s inner city is being transformed into a state of the art infectious diseases research centre. Work is well underway on the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) new J.C. Wilt Infectious Diseases Research Centre. The impetus for the new project is that the National Microbiology Read More »

January 6, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Public Health, and Research
Share

Controversial bird flu studies defy easy solutions: WHO

(CTV.ca) While it’s tempting to boil the arguments down to a single issue — the evils of censorship, the sanctity of open science, the dangers of bioterrorism — to do so ignores the many difficult questions that the scientific, public health and security …

January 6, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Bioterrorism, Public Health, and Research
Share

Flu Season

(Foreign Policy) 7, addressing the review summit on biological weapons. Concern reached such heights that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a surprise visit to Geneva on Dec. 7, addressing the review summit on biological weapons. No American official of her stature had attended the bioweapons summits in decades, and Clinton’s presence stunned observers.