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| Feds: Science paper a terrorist's road map |
| 2005-06-07 |
| The federal government has asked the National Academy of Sciences not to publish a research paper that feds describe as a "road map for terrorists" on how to contaminate the nation's milk supply. The research paper on biological terrorism, by Stanford University professor Lawrence M. Wein and graduate student Yifan Liu, provides details on how terrorists might attack the milk supply and offers suggestions on how to safeguard it. ... The paper "is a road map for terrorists and publication is not in the interests of the United States," HHS Assistant Secretary Stewart Simonson wrote in a letter to the science academy chief Dr. Bruce Alberts. The paper gives "very detailed information on vulnerability nodes" in the milk supply chain and "includes ... very precise information on the dosage of botulinum toxin needed to contaminate the milk supply to kill or injure large numbers of people," Simonson wrote. "It seems clear on its face that publication of this manuscript could have very serious public health and national security consequences." Alberts wrote that acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Lester Crawford was joining him in the request to halt publication. Officials of HHS and the academy said they are to meet Tuesday to discuss the article. "The academy has been dealing with the issue of scientific openness versus national security since 9/11," said academy spokesman Bill Kearney. "The academy [members] are strong advocates of scientific openness while ensuring that nothing is done to aid terrorists." Well, just keep ensuring that then...and pull the article, or cut out the "un-interesting" bits. ... More at the link. |
| Posted by:Rafael |
| #9 You dare violate the purity of black coffee?! Blasphemy! Jihad on you, infidel! |
| Posted by: BH 2005-06-07 15:17 |
| #8 God help the idiot who dares to screw with the enjoyment of my coffee! |
| Posted by: Tkat 2005-06-07 10:47 |
| #7 As somebody allergic to milk.... I am glad this wasn't a plan of attack on soy! |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-06-07 10:35 |
| #6 Edward: A professor doing the work? No, no, no. EVERYBODY knows the grad students do the work and the prof gets the credit (and the tenure). |
| Posted by: growler 2005-06-07 10:32 |
| #5 The NAS has been pushing for open source availability of all data and results generated by federally funded and other research. They have a lot of supporters on this in the academic science community, with a strong emphasis on the social justice issues involved. For a related topic, watch what is going on re: intellectual property in recent international forums as Brazil and other countries argue (with some justification) that a few western corporations have been allowed to rip them off by patenting traditional knowledge about plants etc. and then charging high fees for the use of those plants in medicines. So this paper has been written within a larger debate about security vs. free access to scientific research results. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. |
| Posted by: rkb 2005-06-07 09:02 |
| #4 Cant the Feds just make it a classified document? It gets published, which is what the Prof and student work towards, but noone reads it. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2005-06-07 08:28 |
| #3 gromsky, even I'm not surprised. Though where didja figure that Prof. Wein did absolutely nothing? |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2005-06-07 03:13 |
| #2 fate can be cruel. Most likely it will be his baby who dies. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-06-07 01:47 |
| #1 I'm sure Yifan Liu (who did all the actual work) has passed on the full report to his controller. |
| Posted by: gromky 2005-06-07 00:39 |