Quote:
https://www.state.gov/biological-weapons-convention/
In theory, the *potential* benefit is to make it easy to observe the behavior of the pathogen, and develop medical interventions. Amplification of signal basically.Originally Posted by Excargodog
IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO IT - I can certainly see the advantages (Hell, the NECESSITY) of such precautions. I still haven't understood the putative advantages of doing it at all though, unless you are searching for a biowarfare capability. Which I sort of thought we renounced with the Biological Weapons Convention.https://www.state.gov/biological-weapons-convention/
I don't have any sense of how much benefit vs. the risk, ie does it just make the research easier (cheaper & faster), or are there some things which simply cannot be observed at normal levels of function?
Faster research results *might* be a good excuse for GoF, if you're in a situation where you're trying to get ahead of something which just reared it's ugly head in the wet markets.