Anthrax is a rapid and highly effective killer. When it infects, the bacteria produces a toxin, or poison, that attacks cells.
Experts consider anthrax-based biological weapons to be major military threat.
Bioterrorism weapons using anthrax or other bacteria are easier to make and distribute than nuclear weapons. You have to give it almost immediately after exposure. If you give it 24 hours later, it is too late. Anthrax toxin consists of three proteins, and early research showed that one of the proteins, called lethal factor, or LF, was the major cause of cell death. But what science didn't know until now is how LF killed the cells.