October 3, 2001

4:49 PM

Black Death Decoded:the BBC is reporting that scientists have decoded the genetic structure of the bacterium responsible for the plague. More information is available here. Meanwhile Harvard is working on an anthrax antidote.
posted by ryanshepard (2 comments total)

Let's see how long it takes for the genome to be posted on the Internet so outlaw genetic engineers can start enhancing it to come up with a new bioweapon.
posted by alumshubby at 5:33 PM on October 3, 2001

Alumshubby, your grasp of science in general and molecular biology in particular is astounding.

Also, they've published this in Nature, so all of the "outlaw genetic engineers" probably have a hard copy of it to go with their copy of the human genome.

On a related note, last year a group at the NIH reported preliminary results regarding a DNA vaccine for Ebola.
posted by LabTroglodyte at 6:34 PM on October 3, 2001