Resumen de Waiting to explode.
The article explores the debate about the need for safety versus open inquiry that was sparked by the creation of a genetically engineered bird influenza (flu) virus with the potential to spread easily among human beings. An overview of genetically engineered mutations of the H5N1 bird flu virus by two separate teams of researchers, including a U.S. team led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo, Japan, and a Dutch team led by Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands is presented. The debate between biodefense experts who argue for restrictions on research and those who argue that research on dangerous pathogens is important for improving diseases surveillance is discussed.
