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California's Central Valley shores up counter-agroterror programs
Butte County sets an example for others with tight controls on cropdusters, fertilizer and pesticide storage
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Efforts genetically to engineer pathogens runs into evolutionary trouble
Scientists, rogue or traditional, must overcome “one-kill cycle” of new bacteria and viruses; new strains kill hosts too quickly to cause pandemic
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Worried about crop smuggling, USDA imposes new fees on Canadian fliers, transport
Rise of tropical fruit smuggling worries USDA; $5 fee to be imposed on airline travellers; $5.25 for trucks, $7.50 for every railway car, and $488 on each maritime vessel
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Sheetz food poisoning fiasco inspires software reponse
Alto-Shaam and E-Control Systems offer food preparation monitoring system; data from cookers and freezers useful for employee oversight, defending against lawsuits
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Japanese government survey finds health centers unprepared for bioterror
Many lack trained teams to respond to small pox and anthrax
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Safe America Foundation to test social distancing as flu response
Effort coordinated with French government, American health authorities; employees of Fortune 100 firms to avoid each other at work, will be monitored by hidden cameras
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Escape of genetically modified grass and rice upsets industry
Lax regulatory enforcement cited as major problem; USDA often unware of testing programs and location
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Georgia congressmen press House about agroterrorism
State a leader in biodefense; first state to create a “national curriculum” on agrosecurity
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Fisher Scientific, trying to merge with Thermo Electron, will sell off product line to satisfy anti-trust concerns
A request for information from the FTC prompts company to consider selling Genevac, a $17 million solvent evaporation and concentration equipment manufacturer
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New York and San Francisco use fish to monitor drinking water
In airports German Shepherds are used to protect civilians from contaminants, bomb making materials, narcotics, etc.; In two cities, however, fish are doing the detecting by monitoring drinking water
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Luminex applies medical know-how to war against bioterrorism
Texas company using technology it developed for drug companies and clinical research labs as a basis for developing a trigger sensor which would alert of a bioterror attack
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Viriginia wildelife organization to develop bioterror surveillance system
Animals in the wild are susceptible to some of the very pathogens which terrorists would use in a bioterror attack; one way, therefore, to detect the onset of such an attack would be to keep a close eye on wildlife for any suspicious occurances
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TVI announces selection as decontamination system provider for DoD
The contract under the Defense Guardian Installation Protection Program is worth $490,000; company will deploy proprietary fabric shelter structures
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Sceptor Industries reports excellent results from recent tests of its OMNI 3000 portable air sampler
The Kansas City, Missouri company reports that it achieved collection efficiences as high as 91.8% and managed to process 277 liters of air per minute
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United States is still vulnerable to bioterror, but is moving in the right direction
Experts agree technology has come a long way; some still, however, believe we are not safe from bioterrorism as new threats continue to arise – one being synthetic bioterror agents
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The long view
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”
A Brief History of Federal Funding for Basic Science
Biomedical science in the United States is at a crossroads. For 75 years, the federal government has partnered with academic institutions, fueling discoveries that have transformed medicine and saved lives. Recent moves by the Trump administration — including funding cuts and proposed changes to how research support is allocated — now threaten this legacy.
Vaccine Integrity Project Says New FDA Rules on COVID-19 Vaccines Show Lack of Consensus, Clarity
Sidestepping both the FDA’s own Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), two Trump-appointed FDA leaders penned an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine to announce new, more restrictive, COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. Critics say that not seeking broad input into the new policy, which would help FDA to understand its implications, feasibility, and the potential for unintended consequences, amounts to policy by proclamation.