Gentle approach could cripple drug-resistant bugs

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 3 weeks (www.newscientist.com)

Taking a softly, softly approach to wiping out infection might be the way to beat the evolution of drug resistance in bacteria.

This new technique involves blocking the tularaemia bacterium's ability to sense human hormones. Although testing in human subjects is at least five years off, the bacteria's ability to kill mice was "crippled" by the alterations.

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How to stop a new type of heart attack

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 months 15 hours (technology.newscientist.com)

PACEMAKERS are supposed to protect people from heart attacks. But to do that they have to provide digital as well as biological security.
Earlier this year, a team led by William Maisel at Harvard Medical School demonstrated how a commercial radio transmitter could be used to modify wireless communications from a pacemaker (New Scientist, 22 March, p 23). Doctors normally use these signals to monitor and adjust the implanted device, but a malicious hacker could reprogram the pacemaker to give its wearer damaging shocks, or run down its batteries

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The Anthrax Case: From Spores to a Suspect

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 months 5 days (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

The scientific evidence against Bruce Ivins, the 62-year-old Army scientist who killed himself while about to be indicted for the anthrax murders, is finally emerging. Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) laid some of its cards on the table. One key document, scientists say, now enables a reconstruction of the trail that led the FBI from the deadly letters back to Ivins's lab at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland.

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Biothreats are real and warrant study

jane2007 submitted, created time 6 months 4 weeks (news-service.stanford.edu)

The biological arsenal that could be used for harm against humanity has an almost limitless supply of weaponry, thanks to nature's own talent for creating infectious agents of destruction. So biothreats aren't new, but they are real and warrant study.

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$1 Million Cost for Biosecurity Breaches

Sue Wu submitted, created time 9 months 20 hours (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

The federal government is fining Texas A&M University (TAMU) in College Station $1 million for safety and security lapses in its biodefense labs--the largest penalty yet for violating rules for handling potential bioweapons. Despite the agreement, the university has not yet been cleared to resume its biodefense research.

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Plant-disease controls sap outbreak responses