BioethicistMalcolm Dandohas published a distressful and well - research editorial in this hebdomad ’s Nature magazine , about how biologic research is being weaponize – and how poorly biologists realize the military conditional relation of their employment . Here ’s what he has to say .
Dando writes , in part :
At the 4th European Symposium on Non - Lethal Weapons in 2007 , researchers from the Institute of Experimental Medicine and Charles University in Prague described the effects on macaque monkeys of combinations of drugs that grow a rapid release of belligerent doings . They reason that the drugs could be “ used to pacify aggressive multitude during … terrorist tone-beginning ” . The same researcher have also investigated methods of aerosol obstetrical delivery to human Volunteer .
Those who stick out the development of incapacitating agent often fence that using them in conflict state of affairs stops people being down . Historical evidence suggest otherwise . At the Nord - Ost military blockade , for instance , terrorists display to the fentanyl mixture were shot dead rather than arrested . Likewise , in Vietnam , the US military used Brobdingnagian quantities of CS gaseous state – a ‘ non - lethal ’ wow - control agent – to increase the effectiveness of conventional weapons by sluice the Viet Cong out of their concealment places .
Blind to misuse
The lack of engagement with this matter among life sentence scientist in general is alarming . Some company are already marketing oxytocin on the back of sketch showing that a nasal squirt of the endocrine increases cartel in humans . Even though the effectiveness of commercial sprays is doubtful , such research open up the possibility of a drug that could be used to manipulate people ’s emotion in a military context . Discussions with more than 2,000 practising lifespan scientists in 13 countries over the past few years have taught me that few have regard such potential uses of their work .
It ’s worth reading Dando ’s integral column – it ’s full of interesting fact about the use of biologic weapons , as well as details about biologists who are currently complicit in weaponizing their neuroscience discoveries . It ’s one thing to consciously choose to create biologic weapons , but Dando points out that one of the worst problem is scientist who never contemplate the military implications of their work . That ’s why his discussion above about oxytocin is so disturbing – these investigator never think about how their discoveries , in the awry hands , might be used for twisting , interrogation , or worse .
biologist Napping While Work Militarizedvia Nature
look-alike by J. Field
BiologymilitaryScience
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