Don't try this at home

COMMON sense tells us that the contents of an artist’s studio should be easy to distinguish from those of an illicit bioweapons lab. Federal agents working for the US Joint Terrorism Task Force might disagree. They have spent the past few weeks investigating a radical artist called Steven Kurtz who uses DNA and bacteria to create works meant to spark debate about the safety and morality of genetic research. And their inquiries have taken an ominous turn: as New Scientist went to press, colleagues of the artist were about to give evidence in a hearing prompted by the FBI to determine whether Kurtz should face charges…