Fergie's Tech Blog

How Dangerous Is My Science?

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee writes on ScienceNOW Daily News:

How can biomedical researchers tell whether their work might be misused by terrorists? A U.S. government-appointed panel has come up with some broad guidance on the question and suggested that in some cases, scientists should not publish the results of such "dual-use" research.

The 25-member panel--the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB)--was set up by the department of Health and Human Services (HHS) two years ago to help the government develop safeguards against the wrongful application of life sciences research. As a first step, on Friday the board laid down the standard for identifying research that might have potential for misuse, defining it as "research that, based on current understanding can be reasonably anticipated to provide knowledge, products or technologies that could be directly misapplied by others to pose a threat to public health, agriculture, plants, animals, the environment, or materiel."

The definition covers research leading to insights that, among other things, could be used to "enhance the harmful consequences of a biological agent," "enhance the susceptibility of a host population," or "reconstitute an eradicated or extinct biological agent."

posted by Fergie @ 7/17/2006 08:47:00 PM