The US government has been funding research by the University of Michigan into ways of treating casualties and decontaminating buildings after an attack with pathogens such as anthrax. One trick the researchers have come up with is to trap the microorganisms in an emulsion (US 2004/43041) and then kill them with a biocide.
The emulsion is produced by adding a little detergent to a 4:1 mix of soybean or olive oil and tributyl phosphate. Tests on mice show that if inosine is added to the emulsion to encourage germination of dormant forms of bugs, such as anthrax spores, then cetylpyridinium…
