SO FAR, Al-Qaida and other major terrorist groups have spread their message with nothing more subtle than high explosives and hijacked aircraft. Let us hope that tomorrow’s terrorists don’t include people with PhDs in molecular genetics, because a New Scientist investigation has revealed that they might not find it hard to take their murderous campaigns to a frightening new level.
Our investigation shows how many companies that synthesise genes to order are performing few checks on what they are making or who their customers are (see “The bioweapon is in the post”). If one of these firms were to…
