Advances in Bio-weaponry 279
kjh1 writes "Technology Review is running an eye-opening article on how biotechnology has advanced to the point where producing bio-weapons that were once only possible with the backing of governments with enormous resources is now possible with equipment purchased off eBay. You can now purchase a mini-lab of equipment for less than $10,000. The writer also interviewed a former Soviet bioweaponeer, Serguei Popov, who worked at the Biopreparat, the Soviet agency that secretly developed biological weapons. Popov has since moved to the US and provided a great deal of information on the types of weapons the Soviets were developing."
Also check out Ken Alibek (Score:5, Informative)
Frankly, this is the stuff of horror stories.
Re:worried? (Score:4, Informative)
Relevant Literature (Score:2, Informative)
Re:at last (Score:2, Informative)
That was the first and only... (Score:5, Informative)
From wikipedia:
Sucessful dispersal of chemical and biological agents is tough. Government funded programs have not been very effective, what makes anyone think that terrorists could come up with an effective delivery system.
Now think about "mutation". (Score:3, Informative)
What happens when the pathogen mutates? Lots of little virus babies mean lots of chances for mutation. Again, this isn't magic. This is science. To kill based on skin colour, the virus would have to target a very specific DNA/RNA sequence. Viruses mutate. The mutations aren't controlled. One mutation and your virus is suddenly attacking the wrong breed. Sure. Whatever. Yes. The problem is lack of decent education in the field of biology.
In order for your tailored viruses to work, they'd have to be able to only infect people with a certain DNA/RNA sequence, and that isn't very easy outside of the cell.
So, your virus has to infect everyone, but only kill those with the sequence you've targetted.
So, everyone is infected, with a deadly virus, and viruses mutate
It is so much easier and more assured to just buy a shotgun and do it yourself.
Re:Also check out Ken Alibek (Score:3, Informative)
(The second link has an interview with Dr. Alibek)
Yeah, whatever. (Score:4, Informative)
Seriously, I'd expect someone with your claimed credentials to understand the basics of this. This isn't cut-and-paste.
You have to identify the exact DNA/RNA sequence that identifies your target.
Then you have to engineer the virus to only kill the hosts with that sequence
while remaining dormant in the hosts without that sequence.
And you can't just cut-and-paste the sequence you want to attack into the virus. The changes to the virus would be a completely different research project. And why would that person choose bio-tech over the conventional shotgun? Because chemical agents work so much more effectively, are easier to manufacture, transport and disperse.
And even more effective than chemical agents are conventional weapons. Such as "hand guns" or "shotguns". Not to mention the ever popular "explosives strapped to your body".
Some info not in the wikipedia blurb (Score:5, Informative)
* The major failure with the attack was the lack of time to develop a good dispersal mechanism, as the attack plan was moved ahead of schedule because of the cult's impression that the authorities were going to act on them imminently. They had this impression on the basis of penetration of Japanese military and police sources. They eventually settled on liquid in bags getting poked with umbrella tips.
* The "specific targets" at Matsumoto were judicial magistrates whom the cult thought had a hand in the investigation against them. Seven died in that attack, incidentally.
* Aum was fricking scary with the amount of resources they had at their disposal. I remember a $300 million chemical weapons factory (operating completely above-board in Japan in broad daylight, just another chemical factory, had all its permits), and them staging a parachute raid on a JSDF facility using turncoat JSDF forces. Sounds like a bad anime, I know.
I wouldn't be sanguine about this. If you can get weapons grade sarin you can certainly develop a delivery system for it. Its not trivial but, hey, $300 million dollars has a certain way of making non-trivial problems seem a whole lot less daunting. We lucked out in a major way, in that with everything designed right for the attack (high-profile target with hundreds of thousands of people in an enclosed space) the cult made multiple errors (impure toxin, dispersal surface area the size of an umbrella puncture, etc) which minimized the casualties. There were other lucky incidents, too -- two Japanese station attendants soaked up the chemical in one car with newspapers, sealed it in plastic, and took it to the station room (I don't know if they had any idea that they were dealing with anything worse than a liquid mess, but both of them died for their troubles, which many people from exposure to that portion of the attack).
And, incidentally, remember the anthrax attack on the US and how the postal system and much of the East Coast essentially *shut down* with less casualties? Its difficult to overstate how much of the Japanese economy/government/everything is dependent on Tokyo and how dependent Tokyo is on their mass transit system. If you hit one car in Tokyo's inner loop with a lethal nerve agent tomorrow and then followed it up with a successful strike once a week for, oh, I don't know, two weeks? Three? That would be about as effective at causing economic damage in Japan as driving an airplane into a tall building of your choice in New York City.
Re:Oh goody (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, IIRC this is not the case. While it's easy to cultivate Anthrax, it is very hard to "weaponize" it: mill it so fine that it will spread on air currents as an aerosol.
Which I take to be you point. But you make it sound like the hard part is putting it in some kind of warhead. That's relatively easy. It's not really any more complex than the IEDs they are using in Iraq.
"Getting it right" when it comes to weaponizing a deadly infectious agent would be very, very hazardous to your health unless you were immune. Work on these agents would normally be done in a level four biohazard facility, and although a terrorist might be likely to take risks, mucking around with them without the training and equipment used in a level 2 facilty would probably result in an unintended release.