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March 2006

The Knowledge

Continued from page 11

By Mark Williams
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More immediately, no one has a good idea about what should be done. Some scientists hope to arrest the spread of bioweapons knowledge. Rutgers's Richard Ebright wants to reverse what he believes to be counterproductive in the funding of biodefense. More dramatically, Harvard's George Church is calling for all DNA synthesizers to be registered internationally. "This wouldn't be like regulating guns, where you just give people a license and let them do whatever they want," he says. "Along with the license would come responsibilities for reporting." Furthermore, Church believes that just as all DNA synthesizers should be registered, so should any molecular biologists researching the select agents or the human immune system response to pathogens. "Nobody's forced to do research in those areas. If someone does, then they should be willing to have a very transparent, spotlighted research career," Church says.

But enactment of Church's proposals would represent an unprecedented regulation of science. Worse, not all nations would comply. For instance, Russian biologists, some of whom are known to have worked at Biopreparat, have reportedly trained molecular-biology students at the Pasteur Institute in Tehran.

More fundamentally, arresting the progress of biological-weapons research is probably impractical. Biological knowledge is all one, and therapies cannot be easily distinguished from weapons. For example, a general trend in biomedicine is to use viral vectors in gene therapy.

Robert Carlson, senior scientist in the Genomation Lab and the Microscale Life Sciences Center in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington, believes there are two options. On the one hand, we can clamp down on biodefense research, stunting our ability to respond to biological threats. Alternatively, we can continue to push the boundaries of what is known about how pathogens can be manipulated -- spreading expertise in building biological systems, for better and for worse, through experiments like Buller's assembly of a mousepox-IL4 recombinant -- so we are not at a mortal disadvantage. One day, we must hope, technology will suggest an answer.

Serguei Popov has lived with these questions longer than most. When I asked him what could be done, he told me, "I don't know what kind of behavior or scientific or political measures would guarantee that the new biology won't hurt us." But the vital first step, Popov said, was for scientists to overcome their reluctance to discuss biological weapons. "Public awareness is very important. I can't say it's a solution to this problem. Frankly, I don't see any solution right now. Yet first we have to be aware."

Mark Williams is a contributing writer to Technology Review.

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Comments

  • The Knowledge Bioweapons Article
    Guest (eldestdeev) on 03/13/2006 at 12:00 AM
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    1
    Superb piece, superbly told.  One hopes the government is secretly far ahead of public knowledge in combatting or pre-empting this.  Otherwise, massive death can be the only forseeable result.
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Pandora's Box
      Guest (Gary Percer) on 03/13/2006 at 12:00 AM
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      1
      Like Pandora's box, once the technology is disseminated, it cannot be re-gathered.

      Like Pandora's box, the box will be opened because of the nature of the human being.

      Like Pandora's box, we will suffer the consequences for all time.
      Rate this comment: 12345
      • Pandora's box
        Guest (Ueberluser) on 05/02/2006 at 12:00 AM
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        1
        Yes, that may very well be the case.
        It may also be that case that these technologies could save the entire race from a yet to be determined threat and as such would be a nessecary evil. Not that nessecary evils won't kill us all anyway...
        Rate this comment: 12345
    • Pathogens are not weapons
      Guest (Andreas) on 03/21/2006 at 12:00 AM
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      1
      This otherwise very good article only briefly touches the considerable difficulty of creating weapons from pathogens. While it concludes that biological agents will most probably be used in warfare, it completely omits a discussion of the effectiveness of biological weapons in war, which is probably not very good. Presumably the reason why biological weapons have never been used is that they simply are not that more damaging than conventional ones, but way more difficult to target. The same is probably true for chemical weapons, which have been used to some extent.
      Rate this comment: 12345
      • Biological Weapons Have Been Used
        Guest (AP) on 04/09/2006 at 12:00 AM
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        1
        Dear Sir - biological weapons have been used in war - one of the best examples is the use of small pox by the British during the French-Indian War, and other examples, historically documented, by US Forces against Native American groups - again, generally, small pox infected blankets.

        Also, note - I think you argument is valid, except, when you are dealing with asymetric warfare and terrorist agents - either domestic or foreign, given the fact that the rules of engagement are no longer binding, and you are dealing with zero-sum game theory. 

        Also, note - salmonella was actively used in the Dalles, Oregon in early 1980s to de-stabilize an entire town in order to effect political outcome of vote, and as well to target specific individuals.
        Rate this comment: 12345
      • Pathogens are not weapons?
        Guest (Frank) on 07/25/2006 at 12:00 AM
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        1
        Who says they haven't been used successfully? The last stage of the Black Plague in 1352 began during a biological, abeit cure one, in the Crimea of Russia. Before 1906 and the Sino-Russian war most of the deaths in all wars were attributed to disease. The South used biological warfare during the American civil war by contaminating the water supply of Norhern troops with dead animals. Typhus nearly wiped out Napoleon's army before it ever got to Moscow in 1812 and was responsible for 75% of the deaths in his army and his return to Poland set off a massive typhus epidemic that went as far as the English Channel.
        Rate this comment: 12345
    • DNA
      Guest (shri) on 05/03/2006 at 12:00 AM
      Posts:
      1
      The society is ultimately responsible. The Governments pof countries must co-operate
      Rate this comment: 12345
  • E coli o157
    Guest (richard katz) on 03/13/2006 at 12:00 AM
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    1
    how come even in long articles like this nobody EVER mentions E coli o157 as a biowarfare agent? not only has it been used that way, successfully, but it sure looks like it was made in the recombinant mode that this article is all about.
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • E coli 157
      Guest (Frank Lowe) on 07/25/2006 at 12:00 AM
      Posts:
      1
      Check former research into HIV/AIDS in the 1980's. They studied it then.
      Rate this comment: 12345
  • Other equally or more important questions
    Guest (Alan Root) on 03/15/2006 at 12:00 AM
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    1
    How do we identify and extinguish those features of our brains that impel us in self-destructive directions? Let's minimize the threats from asteroids coming at us from outer space! Let's maximize the threats from inner space! We need to reprogram our brains and our genes...
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Assume the Worst, Work Backward
      Guest (AP) on 04/09/2006 at 12:00 AM
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      1
      Is there is anyone on this listing activly pursuing this issue? I have a research problem associated with assuming that these agents exists, and planning response.  I can't afford as per tasking to argue about whether or not the Soviets did this, or did that. I must assume they did, and deal with both foreign and domestic continued threat and release. 

      I also can't afford to assume that new technologies will save us. 

      I am willing to dialogue in other modes.

      AP
      Rate this comment: 12345
  • In the event that there is no defense...
    Guest (Shane) on 04/10/2006 at 12:00 AM
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    1
    In the event that western civilization has no defense against such a threat, we rely on intelligence to alert us to the threat.  If any credible threat is uncovered...I daresay that we may live to see a pre-emptive tactical solution.  On what scale?  I think that would depend on the accuracy and detail of the intelligence.

    If we are successfully attacked on a global scale by a bioengineered pathogen that can spread from human to human and retains its' genetic sequence so it doesn't mutate out of its' weaponized form... well, let's just hope we don't see that day.  If we do, let me be one of the victims because I don't want to live in the kind of world that would follow such an event.
    Rate this comment: 12345
  • The Knowledge article
    Guest (Guran Walker) on 04/13/2006 at 12:00 AM
    Posts:
    1
    The point was made, inferior military regimes resort successfully to the most potent weapon they can find - always. Now we draw near God in our molecular tinkering will the angels save us or destroy us? Scripture indicates they will seed the winds. But I feel this is only one of the scurges to be suffered by our Race. Nice to have the 'heads up' on the state-of-play. Sublimely written heh.
    Rate this comment: 12345
  • My brief response to the article
    Guest (Robert Carlson) on 04/19/2006 at 12:00 AM
    Posts:
    1
    http://synthesis.typepad.com/synthesis/2006/03/the_knowledge.html
    Rate this comment: 12345
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