Posted on 11/07/2006 1:05:54 PM PST by FLOutdoorsman
It's much more likely this is the one that makes people smart.
Look at it another way: if it was a terrible leathal virus, it wouldn't be in our genome, would it?
In other words, the people who caught it wouldn't have descendants. :p
"the study should have been carried out under Biosafety level 4 conditions"
Biosafety Level 4 is required for work with dangerous and exotic agents that pose a high individual risk of aerosol-transmitted laboratory infections and life-threatening disease. Agents with a close or identical antigenic relationship to Biosafety Level 4 agents are handled at this level until sufficient data are obtained either to confirm continued work at this level, or to work with them at a lower level.
Members of the laboratory staff have specific and thorough training in handling extremely hazardous infectious agents and they understand the primary and secondary containment functions of the standard and special practices, the containment equipment, and the laboratory design characteristics. They are supervised by competent scientists who are trained and experienced in working with these agents. Access to the laboratory is strictly controlled by the laboratory director.
The facility is either in a separate building or in a controlled area within a building, which is completely isolated from all other areas of the building. A specific facility operations manual is prepared or adopted.
Within work areas of the facility, all activities are confined to Class III biological safety cabinets, or Class II biological safety cabinets used with one-piece positive pressure personnel suits ventilated by a life support system. The Biosafety Level 4 laboratory has special engineering and design features to prevent microorganisms from being disseminated into the environment. The laboratory is kept at negative air pressure, so that air flows into the room if the barrier is penetrated or breached. Furthermore, an airlock is used during personnel entry and exit.
I saw video of old Soviet bio-weapons labs, the safety (or lack of) was down right scary.
In humanities expansive and never-ending fight against complex modern evolving viruses, wouldn't it be ironic if the crude retrovirus resurrected to assist in this battle exterminated us all? Sounds like a Crichton novel
Sorcerer's Apprentice Mengele ping
Even the very worst plagues killed only a fraction of those infected. Not good if you were in the fraction though.
thanks, bfl
Great idea - resurrect a virus that no living creature for a million years has had to fend off. Schmucks! This is what computer modeling is all about.
Let's hope and pray that there's no "uh-oh" moment involved with this.
Next up, a "consensus" human genome, that has been cleaned up by excising extraneous viral code and other genetic defects.
Why? So the terrorists can get a good head start on us? The bad guys don't have to "undergo reviews" before they forge ahead. We would do well to remember that.
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