Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: christianchick on 30/03/2004 15:25:31
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Remember how bad the anthrax thing was? Now i would like to know how you could send those suckers in the mail without getting sick yourself
I WILL RULE THE WORLD, so suck up now before its too late(ha ha ha ha ha)
Greetings in Christ Jesus my Lord[;)]
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If you know you're working with anthrax you can very easily prevent yourself from contracting it (much like any other pathogen or hazerdous material) the danger came in that the people who might recieve it in the mail didn't know it was coming.
This is a signature.... AND YOU WILL LIKE IT!!
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You know, it may very well be that the "anthrax guy" caught a dose of his own medicine and is no longer able to send those nasty letters. :)
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Any microbiologist competent enough to locate and properly culture live Bacillus anthracis and get it into spore form would know enough to prevent his or her own exposure.
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...but if someone had the means to procure 'ready made' anthrax(y'know like from 'Anthrax R Us')..they might not be competent enough to take the correct procedures in dealing with it........perhaps.....maybe......well....... maybe not....Oh I don't know !!
'Men are the same as women...just inside out !' (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.world-of-smilies.de%2Fhtml%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Flove%2Fknuddel.gif&hash=4a2eca194a2a4fc81a1233644b68332f)
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Well, there's 2 ways of looking at it in that case:
1) They procure from a trusted source. In this case, the source would probably take care to give them proper safety instructions.
2) They buy from a shady back-alley black market source who isn't going to say a thing except "thanks for the money, here's your anthrax, buddy." If they're stupid enough to do that, they deserve whatever they catch from it.
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BTW, why are you asking, Christian Chick? Are you just curious or did they open up an abortion clinic in your neighborhood or something? I get apprehensive when religous people ask about things like biological weapons. No offense.
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quote:
Originally posted by cannabinoid
Any microbiologist competent enough to locate and properly culture live Bacillus anthracis and get it into spore form would know enough to prevent his or her own exposure.
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I don't believe it's too hard to culture anthrax. A girl in my bio class a few years ago actually produced some two years back. I think it's present in the soil.
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Well, it ain't rocket science but you'd still need to know how to isolate and identify it from random soil samples and then have the right conditions to incubate it. Doing it in a properly set up micro lab in school is a lot easier than doing it in a cave somewhere.
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We worked with baccilus antracis in the school, but it seems it`s not dangerous at all unless it is introduced as the SPORES. If it is cultivated, it can easily be manipulated.
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If you hang around a university, you can collect old but serviceable equipment for really cheap or even free. Maybe it isnt "state-of-the-art", but most of it works. If you know what to look for, you can build up a nice lab for whatever you might want to do, and still maintain a resonable budget for decorating your cave.
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John - The Eternal Pessimist.
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quote:
Originally posted by tweener
If you hang around a university, you can collect old but serviceable equipment for really cheap or even free. Maybe it isnt "state-of-the-art", but most of it works. If you know what to look for, you can build up a nice lab for whatever you might want to do, and still maintain a resonable budget for decorating your cave.
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John - The Eternal Pessimist.
Like Dr. Dexter from CARTOON NETWORK [:)][:)][:)]
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Hmmm... sounds like the naked scientist has become the naked terrorist.
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> We worked with baccilus antracis in the school
Yeah, under the supervision of a microbiology professor, I assume. Also, it may be more dangerous in spore form because of inhalation risk, but if they're going to put it into that form to use on other people, logic dictates they themselves are working with it in spore form. I'm not saying this is the cure for cancer we're talking about here, but working blindly in the field with little to no education and some broken hand-me-down equipment (if you're lucky) is a lot different from working in an academic setting under Ph.D. supervision.
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Obtain a prescription for antibiotics and take them during and after working with the anthrax.
Peter C. Sayles
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The frustrating thing about that real-life anthrax by mail event is that the perpetrator got away with murder. After all this time, I expect that we will never see an arrest.
Do you remember anything else about it? The silly note enclosed that was supposed to make you think that it was sent by Islamic terrorists? That was obviously a red herring when you consider the fact that it was only sent to politically liberal legislators (but did not reach any of them- it killed or injured post office or office workers instead). To me it seems as if a politically conservative crazy American man tried to take advantage of 9/11. He failed in his objective, but eluded the consequences of his crime. It was very sad and horrible.
chris wiegard