US Asks Scientists To Censor Reports To Prevent Terrorism

Following up on a disturbing story we discussed in November, Meshach writes "The United States is asking scientific journals publishing details about biomedical research to censor articles out of fear that terrorists could acquire the information. 'In the experiments, conducted in the United States and the Netherlands, scientists created a highly transmissible form of a deadly flu virus that does not normally spread from person to person. It was an ominous step, because easy transmission can lead the virus to spread all over the world. The work was done in ferrets, which are considered a good model for predicting what flu viruses will do in people.' The panel cannot force the journals to censor their articles, but the editor of Science, Bruce Alberts, said the journal was taking the recommendations seriously and would most likely withhold some information. Are we heading for another Rorschach-style cheat sheet being developed?"

Re:the information has been PUBLICALLY presented..

[acidfast7]

As far as I understand it, the soon-to-be-redacted information has already been publicly (wow, my spelling sucks) presented. I haven't seen it live, but everything could easily be cobbled together by someone with standard virology knowledge and the publicly presented information (mutational data with associated details.) Maybe someone who attended the actual conferences could speak up.

Re:the information has been PUBLICALLY presented..

[sociocapitalist]

There is arguably some science that we don't want in the public domain. Weapons tech comes to mind, of which this is an excellent example - particularly if the methods involved (and I am completely ignorant on this subject but generally speaking) don't require much to duplicate (ie easier to replicate than a nuclear bomb).

Re:How long did it take them to actually DO it?

[CAPSLOCK2000]

From what I've read about it the work they did was not very hard (for an experienced scientist). It is a rather classic case of evolutionary improvement. Take a bunch of ferrets, infect them with the flu, take the most effective strain of the virus and feed it to the next group of ferrets. Repeat until you get a virus with the desired properties.

It takes some time and some experience but it is well within the reach of any sufficiently funded and properly motivated organisation.

Re:How long did it take them to actually DO it?

[bky1701]

"You fools -- you let the terrorists win. You let them change you at the heart and soul of what the country used to be about."

No, not really. We were cowards pretty much since the Civil War. We only ended up joining the two world wars when we thought they might go a way that would hurt us, but in both cases after they had already been largely decided by others. The cold war saw the red scare, which was actually far worse than "the war on terror," with the government shamelessly locking up people for saying the wrong thing. At least now they have the courtesy to lie about it.