[Livsh]

Yes, that is roughly what i could gather also.

exactly why censorship is a terrible idea

You've convinced me...let's turn this into a 'newspapers are full of morons' rant! Seriously, who do they get to write this drivel?

[futureself]

If there are terrorists motivated enough and with the right connections in the scientific community, I don't think placing restrictions on accessing the information will stop them.

I have to agree with this. If releasing a "killer virus" was the aim of a terrorist group, they would be working away at that regardless and forging their own connections.
I can't see anyone simply ripping the pages out of Nature (so to speak) shouting 'Bingo!'; grabbing some gerbils and building a lab in the shed to bring their super bug to life using the article like a recipe off 'Food network'. Which is what is being implied.
ETD, can't spell

This post has been edited by futureself: 21/12/2011, 12:21 PM

[kadoodle]

Urgh, journalists. They seriously need to raise the TER for journalism degrees, because far too many numpties are getting in.

OP - your saying you worked with the herpes virus is making my cold sore hurt

[s-m]

I am not sure where to stand on scientific censorship, particularly since earlier today I was watching some of Oppenheimer's speeches after the first nuclear test. Scientific knowledge *per se* is not necessarily a bad thing, but the devil is in its application.

Once you get scientists working for governments (or terrorist cells), who knows result the world will get???

I also agree with the PP who said that it's probably only a matter of time until a naturally-occuring strain of H5N1 is transmissable between humans anyway...

Steph

[Livsh]

Urgh, journalists. They seriously need to raise the TER for journalism degrees, because far too many numpties are getting in.

OP - your saying you worked with the herpes virus is making my cold sore hurt

I agree, why can't they get journos with actual scientific experience!

I was working on a very VERY modified form of the herpes virus, completely unable to replicate inside cells...I did have friends working on retroviruses including live HIV, that was scary!

[Livsh]

I am not sure where to stand on scientific censorship, particularly since earlier today I was watching some of Oppenheimer's speeches after the first nuclear test. Scientific knowledge *per se* is not necessarily a bad thing, but the devil is in its application.

I also agree with the PP who said that it's probably only a matter of time until a naturally-occuring strain of H5N1 is transmissable between humans anyway...

I agree that a blanket 'science should never be censored' is not a good standpoint, but then nothing that takes such an absolute view of something is a good standpoint! In saying that there are a lot of very bad things that happen in the name of science...human experimentation by the Nazis is one appalling example that comes to mind and some sort of moral compass should be engaged.

The scientists I know are all underpaid and do what they do because they love science, want to make a difference to the world, want to help people...I don't know a single one who is hell bent on world domination!

It is just a matter of time before something like H5N1 will be transmissable, research to understand that will lead to treatments that will help WHEN it does happen! In this case it was good research and not a crazy superbug!!

[miriams]

Depopulation


A popular theory espoused by some as the solution to a myriad of problems threatening their perceived hegemony.

[Fennel Salad]

I'm not a biologist (my training was in engineering and maths so extremely ignorant in the ways of single and multi celled life forms), and my guess is it's a journalist has to digest the information (wont have a clue whats really going on) and often s/he will vomit up something simplistic with an accompanying catchy apocalyptic title.

Nature does a pretty great job on it's own at permutation and combinations of stuff eg Hendra, Nipah, Ebola but people can increase the rate of crazy stuff happening and that can be concerning.

Am I worried? Nah.

[Jeneral]

The scary thing is that now, instead of this scientific paper - one of millions available, that you would normally have to specifically search for, and essentially require a fair bit of background knowledge just to find it, let alone read and understand the implications of it... we now also have public and easily accessable knowledge of the paper, a summary of what it contains, and also the potential evil use of that knowledge!

So now any old dumbass can just go kidnap a scientist and 'make' them do it.

[Fennel Salad]

I don't know if it's as simple as kidnapping a scientist and forcing them to do it. I suspect the labs where this stuff are taking place are extremely expensive to set up and probably very secure with tight controls on biological and chemical supplies.

I don't fear terrorist cells getting this information (where are many effective low cost ways to achieve their objective of terrorizing) but if a nation could have the resources and motivation to develop such pathogens.

And just because it's published in a journal that doesn't mean very much. The authors almost never reveal exactly how something was done (eg like a recipe) just enough information for competitors to know the article isn't crap. At least that's my experience with peer reviewed articles.