North Korea Says Nuke Tests Target US

I would be much more worried if North Korea had weaponized smallpox or influenza, honestly.

I would be much more worried if North Korea had weaponized smallpox or influenza, honestly.

Russia has vats of altered black plaque that could really wipe out humanity, or majority of it, believe it or not

Russia has vats of altered black plaque that could really wipe out humanity, or majority of it, believe it or not

Not doubting you, but do you have an article I can read on it? You got me curious. I'm really into infectious disease and I hope to be a biodefense researcher in the near future.

Not doubting you, but do you have an article I can read on it? You got me curious. I'm really into infectious disease and I hope to be a biodefense researcher in the near future.

There's actually a good book on it that interviews a prominent Russian scientist, let me see if I can find it, its been about 6 months since I last read it, but, if anything that is the threat we're facing, if any.

There's actually a good book on it that interviews a prominent Russian scientist, let me see if I can find it, its been about 6 months since I last read it, but, if anything that is the threat we're facing, if any.

The book I read was The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston. It was mainly about smallpox and current issues today facing smallpox resarch. But yeah, plague is bad. No doubt about that.

Current issues in biodefense discussion? Current issues in biodefense discussion. Get me [MENTION=1697]FrozNlite[/MENTION].

The book I read was The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston. It was mainly about smallpox and current issues today facing smallpox resarch. But yeah, plague is bad. No doubt about that.

Current issues in biodefense discussion? Current issues in biodefense discussion. Get me @FrozNlite.

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Unfortunately for the life of me I can't remember, however this sums it up quite well;

http://discovermagazine.com/2001/nov/fea...QNooSdJPmc

The book specifically talked about a retired Russian scientist going to abandoned research facilities in russia, which still have the the diseases and the strands of such. They also mastered it to be effective and spread like wildfire through humans period, no need to ticks or rodents. I'll have to ask my gf for the title but it definitely gave me perspective on how serious the Russians know it is, while the Americans are kind of like "Pshaw"

[MENTION=2258]Moonlapse[/MENTION];

http://www.amazon.com/Plague-Mysterious-...nic+plague

Bingo.

Thanks for adding another book to my reading list [MENTION=4235]KhainiWest[/MENTION].

Like [MENTION=2258]Moonlapse[/MENTION] I also read Richard Preston's The Demon in the Freezer, and think it's a great text for anyone curious about bioterrorism. That book also details people like who you mentioned, Dustin, like defected Russian scientists who worked on weaponizing disease during the late 80s/early 90s amidst Cold War insanity. I'll never forget the statistic that proof was found or anecdotally recorded from said scientists about Russia making something like 20 tons of weaponized smallpox with a strain so virulent and lethal it took a single airborne particle to kill a person. Doing the math, Preston notes there was enough smallpox in that quantity, not counting the later production of virions in infected hosts that would initiate secondary infections, to kill the world like a couple million times over?

And all 20 tons are missing, with no evidence that they were destroyed. So yeah, people are insane.

However, plague doesn't worry me as much as smallpox or influenza, even though it is a Category A Bioterrorism Agent. I think the scariest would be Ebola if its transmission aspects were modified making it more resistant to environmental pressures, and, obviously, airborne.

Yeah, winnie got a kick out of reading it as a microbiologist, interesting to say the least

Also, relevant: