Biotechnology’s advance could give malefactors the ability to manipulate life processes--and even affect human behavior.

Big article on BioTerrorism.

Biotechnology’s advance could give malefactors the ability to manipulate life processes--and even affect human behavior.

[ A long article and pretty good. Anyone who's been following this meme (that is, the "cheap, easy bioengineering" meme) won't find too many surprises here I guess, but some of the details offered are scarier than usual.

I'll go ahead and ruin the ending for you -- the conclusion ends up being virtually identical to K. Eric Drexler's on the topic of nanotech. It all boils down to, and I'm paraphrasing, "This shit is happening, can't be stopped, and will be both dangerous and profitable, so we better damn well be at the head of the class." That's it. Bio and nano are similar in that discoveries that produce positive benefits (say, universal constructors in nano and viral therapy in bio) can be tweaked just a tiny bit to produce terrifying weapons (universal deconstructors, highly targeted pathogens).

No one's got a good solution, as far as I can tell, so I guess I agree... for now, the only defense is to be the best of the best, and hopefully be capable of responding rapidly to the threats that seem almost inevitable.

p.s. on the subject of ethnically targetted viruses, did anyone else read Frank Herbert's "The White Plague"? It is, sadly, now out of print, but might be available from used sellers online.