A LAB accident has revived fears about experiments that mix human and bird flu viruses and the risk that modified viruses will escape. No virus was released, but the incident has led to a call for details of accidents to be more widely publicised.
Last April, a researcher at the University of Texas, Austin, put tubes into a centrifuge to separate out their contents, which included a human flu virus modified to carry a gene from H5N1 bird flu. The centrifuge became unbalanced and stopped, and when the researcher opened it he found the lid of a safety cup holding…
