IN 2001, Australian researchers caused a stir when they accidentally created a vaccine-resistant pox virus that was lethal to mice. Scientists were even more shaken when, amid fears of bioterrorism, the US government threatened to ban publication of any research about organisms that might be used as weapons.
Now the US National Research Council has struck back with its own proposal for handling risky biology. It lists seven types of experiment that should be controlled, including any that make vaccines, antibiotics or diagnostics ineffective, or increase the virulence or contagiousness of pathogens. It admits this won’t catch everything, but insists…
