(a) What do you think these terms mean? What do you understand by them?

• ‘biological weapons’
• ‘human genetic diversity’
• ‘genetic engineering’

(b) Now discuss the following key questions:

• How do advances in scientific knowledge and understanding open the doors to useful applications and also to potential misuse?
• In what ways do living organisms pose major threats to individual lives and to the wider society?
• How can cellular processes be harnessed to give beneficial and harmful outcomes?
• How do the interests of different individuals, organisations and states vary in relation to the development of biological weapons?
• What are the varied sources of information that may assist in the development of biological weapons?

Activity 2: Could Gulf War Syndrome Result From a Biological Weapon?

1. Read the Web article by Garth Nicolson, Professor of Pathology and Internal Medicine at the Anderson Cancer Clinic in Houston, Texas. He puts forward the radical suggestion that Gulf War Syndrome is a result of the Iraqis’ use of a genetically engineered microbe on the battlefield during the Gulf War.

http://www.planetlink.com/planetaryconnections/iss13/gws.html

2. Use a search engine to gather more information about Gulf War Syndrome.

3. Make selective use of the information you gather to create a poster presenting your findings about Gulf War Syndrome and its possible cause(s).

4. Compare your poster with others produced by the group.

5. As a group, decide whether, on balance, your research lends any support to Professor Nicolson’s contention that ‘We have possibly uncovered one of the messiest controversies and cover-ups since Watergate.’

Activity 3: Biological Defences

The programme reveals the potential for individual terrorists or organised groups to launch an attack using a biological weapon, and shows some possible mechanisms for minimising the consequences of such an attack.

What are the main problems faced by the authorities and by individuals in:

• recognising that a biological agent has been released?
• minimising the consequences of an attack?