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1918 And All That

    Biosafety Now has launched a Substack! All of our essays, including the On Reading series by Simon Wain-Hobson, will now live on our Substack. To read his latest installment, “1918 And All That,” please click here.

Spanish Lookalikes

    Biosafety Now has launched a Substack! All of our essays, including the On Reading series by Simon Wain-Hobson, will now live on our Substack. To read his latest installment, “Spanish Lookalikes,” please click here.

The World We Live In

    Biosafety Now has launched a Substack! All of our essays, including the On Reading series by Simon Wain-Hobson, will now live on our Substack. To read his latest installment, “The World We Live In,” please click here.

Perilous Posturing

On reading Virology in Peril and the Greater Risk To Science by Michael J. Imperiale, Arturo Casadevall, Felicia D. Goodrum, Stacey Schultz-Cherry. mSphere, vol 8, #1, December 15, 2022. Sunset near Marseille, oil on canvas, Charles Signoret (1867-1932)   This paper appeals for thought. As the stakes are high for virology, without question the Queen […]

A Rough Sanding

On reading More Spin than Science: Risk Communication about the H5N1 Bioengineering Research Controversy by Peter Sandman, a transcript of a Skype presentation to ‘Freedom in biological research: How to consider accidental or intentional risks for populations’, at the Fondation Mérieux near Annecy, France, February 8, 2013. Sparkling Brittany, France, oil on plywood, Thierry Devouassoux […]

Flights from Reason

On reading Virology under the Microscope – a Call for Rational Discourse by Felicia Goodrum and 155 others. Journal of Virology, 92, January 26, 2023. Grenache vines for rosé, southern Var, France. Oil on paper, Julien Wain-Hobson 2022   The straw man is set up in the abstract. A small but vocal group of individuals […]

Nuclear Parallels

On reading Remember Your Humanity by Joseph Rotblat, 1995 Nobel Peace Prize Lecture. Bouquet of flowers 1945, oil on canvas, by Lucien Cadene (1887-1958), a native of SW France On reading is always looking for parallel discussions that may help cajole the Gain of Function (GOF) debate. Dr. Rotblat shared the prize with the Pugwash […]

eLife’s Suppression of Science

A case study of peer review enabling academic abuse Alex Washburne Feb 23, 2024   Science was a beautiful thing before people got involved. As a child, the son of a molecular biologist, I envisioned Science as a magical community of scholars all committed to truth, a Vulcan-esque species of minds for whom evidence and […]