“We don’t know if this scientist was going to get rid of Saddam’s wrinkles or kill people.â€
Weapons expert Joseph Cirincione on the discovery of single vial of botulinum toxin by the Iraq Survey Group (The Guardian, London, 3 October)
“We have not found shiny, pointy things that I would call a weapon.â€
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David Kay, head of the Iraq Survey Group (The Guardian, London, 7 October)
“You could write the history of science in the last 50 years in terms of papers rejected by Science or Nature.â€
Paul Lauterbur, winner of this year’s Nobel prize for medicine, commenting that his seminal paper on MRI was initially rejected by Nature in 1973 (The New York Times, 7 October)
“We do not envisage that pigs will be drafted into the Israeli army any time soon.â€
Unnamed official with the Israel Defense Forces, responding to research training pigs to find explosives (The Sunday Telegraph, London, 5 October)
“You can’t do a meaningful recount if the question is about the integrity of the voting machines themselves.â€
Davis Dill, Stanford computer scientist, questioning the accuracy of touch screens used in the Californian election for governor (The Washington Post, 6 October)
“Citizens are not prepared to let privacy be one of the casualties in the war on terrorism.â€
Philippe Busquin, European Research Commissioner, launching an EC report on the impact of digital technology on society post-11 September (6 October)