In a session today on Biosecurity, the debate was on over “dual use” research – work that could be used for good or for evil. How should such work be regulated, and by whom? And what are the most effective ways to ensure that good wins out?

Everyone agrees that education is a big (and cheap) part of the answer: giving new scientists ethical guidance. But according to one questioner in the audience, the issue now is knowing when to start. Graduate school, he says, is about 6 years too late. In the state of Virginia, apparently, kids can take biotechnology classes in highschool. And, he adds, these classes are in the “technologies” department – more commonly known as “shop”. As a result, kids with disciplinary problems who are sent off to classes with more hands-on practicals and less bookish homework are ending up doing biotech. Give it a few years, he says, and the juveniles in penitentiary will have had practice splicing fluorescent genes into e-coli and so, presumably, will be all set to become bioterrorists.

Sadly I can’t confirm if any of this is true, or a fair assessment of Virginia’s biotech efforts (which look admirable to me, from a quick web search). But if there are teachers out there who can let us know if they have a serious problem here, then let us know…

Perhaps more serious problems are apparent in the area of biocontrol… private companies, it seems, are not exactly under the same strict regulation as, say, National Institutes of Health labs. What they’re doing with their botulism bacteria is anyone’s guess. Other government departments too – including the department of defense – may be doing things with biological organisms that some might term more “offensive” than “defensive” if the details were known.

And if anyone does find out about quesitonable activities – in a colleague, shop student or company worker – it is hard to know, for the moment, who exactly to call about it. That was one question this panel couldn’t answer. Though further draft guidelines, expected to be available for public comment possibly as early as this Christmas, should have phone numbers in it. They hope.

In a session today on Biosecurity, the debate was on over “dual use” research – work that could be used for good or for evil. How should such work be regulated, and by whom? And what are the most effective ways to ensure that good wins out?

Everyone agrees that education is a big (and cheap) part of the answer: giving new scientists ethical guidance. But according to one questioner in the audience, the issue now is knowing when to start. Graduate school, he says, is about 6 years too late. In the state of Virginia, apparently, kids can take biotechnology classes in highschool. And, he adds, these classes are in the “technologies” department – more commonly known as “shop”. As a result, kids with disciplinary problems who are sent off to classes with more hands-on practicals and less bookish homework are ending up doing biotech. Give it a few years, he says, and the juveniles in penitentiary will have had practice splicing fluorescent genes into e-coli and so, presumably, will be all set to become bioterrorists.

Sadly I can’t confirm if any of this is true, or a fair assessment of Virginia’s biotech efforts (which look admirable to me, from a quick web search). But if there are teachers out there who can let us know if they have a serious problem here, then let us know…

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