AFIP (The Armed Forces Institutes of Pathology) detected silicon and oxygen in the anthrax and ASSUMED it was some kind of silica additive.
Another famous false statement from Ed Lake's playbook. That they ASSUMED it was silica is simply an argument invented by Ed Lake which he propogates with religious fervor all across the internet. He seems to think that if he puts this on the internet often enough, it might become true. Detrick saw an unidentified material on the anthrax spores after performing SEM. They sent it to AFIP to identify that unidentified material. AFIP identified the material as SILICA. It's all stated quite clearly in AFIP's report. They even showed a SEM/EDX of the silica reference sample they used to prove the unidentified substance was silica. That picture is shown below.
When US Army investigators at Ft Detrick, Md, examined anthrax found in a letter sent to Sen. Thomas Daschle last fall, they discovered that the highly refined spores floated in the air, making them much easier for potential victims to inhale. What made this anthrax so easily aerosolized? A series of sophisticated tests revealed some clues, but the
presence of another unidentifiable substance left the investigation incomplete. That’s when Ft Detrick contacted AFIP’s Department of Environmental and Toxicologic Pathology for assistance.
"Ft Detrick sought our assistance to determine the specific components of the anthrax found in the Daschle letter," said Florabel G. Mullick, MD, ScD, SES, AFIP Principal Deputy Director and department chair. AFIP experts utilized an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (an instrument used to detect the presence of otherwise-unseen chemicals through characteristic wavelengths of X-ray light)
to confirm the previously unidentifiable substance as silica. "This was a key component," Mullick said. "Silica prevents the anthrax from aggregating, making it easier to aerosolize.
AFIP identified the material as SILICA.True. AFIP identified the material as silica in a self-promoting newsletter they wrote. It was NOT a scientific report of any kind, nor was it peer-reviewed. It was just intended to show people are important AFIP is.
In reality, AFIP had no capability for determining the material was silica. They only had the capability for detecting what kinds of ATOMS were in the anthrax that didn't belong in natural anthrax. They detected ATOMS of silicon and oxygen in the anthrax. Silicon atoms do not appear in natural anthrax. Silicon atoms do not appear all by themselves in nature. They are always combined with something else, usually oxygen atoms.
A combination of silicon and oxygen atoms could indicate silicone, some form of manufactured glass or some other combination. But silica is the most common combination of silicon and oxygen atoms. And silica is something that is commonly used to "weaponize" anthrax. So, the natural ASSUMPTION was that there was silica in the anthrax. But it was JUST AN ASSUMPTION. There were no visible silica particles in the anthrax.
It took at least a month to figure out how there could be silicon and oxygen in the anthrax if no one could see any silica particles. The official word has not been released by the FBI, but the best evidence is that the silicon and oxygen were some form of lab contamination from the culprit's lab. Scientists located two old scientific reports which indicated that spores can pick up silicon due to lab contamination. The assumption was that the silicon was somehow absorbed from glass lab equipment. The whole new science of Microbial Forensics was developed to analyze such contamination to see if it can point to a specific lab or a specific process.
It's truly ridiculous to accept what is written in a self-serving newsletter over what was written by a top FBI scientist in a peer-reviewed scientific report printed in the top scientific magazine on microbiology.
Ed