Slashdot videos: Now with more Slashdot! 

View

Discuss

Share

We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc.  No more walled garden!  It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates). 

Pierre Bezukhov (1866830) writes "A Dutch researcher has created a virus with the potential to kill half of the planet’s population.  Now, researchers and experts in bioterrorism debate whether it is a good idea to publish the virus creation ”recipe”.  However, several voices argue that such research should have not happened in the first place. 

The virus is a strain of avian influenza H5N1 genetically modified to be extremely contagious.  It was created by researcher Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands.  The work was first presented at a conference dedicated to influenza, that took place in September in Malta. "Link to Original Source