Zika Is Just the First Front in the 21st-Century Biowar

Why a new era of synthetic biology could make the dangers of the atomic age seem quaint.

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It’s not hard to understand why our lives are increasingly wrapped up in the latest twists and turns of the cyberworld. That supercomputer you are carrying in your pocket (when its tiny colorful screen isn’t parked six inches in front of your eyes) is a synthesizer of all the world’s knowledge, photography, art, music, and data. It is also a kind of X-ray machine that can provide insights into the deepest recesses of our personal lives: our preferences, choices, intimate moments, health, purchases, and indeed our character.

Yet the impact of all that information and data pales in comparison to what is heading our way in the world of biology. Biological, not cybernetic, developments will determine the course of the 21^st century. Ebola, Zika, and the emergence of antibiotic-impervious superbugs are just previews of the coming challenges.

Islamic State jihadists may infect themselves to spread Ebola in the West

Sooner, rather than later America just might wake up and see this is what could’ve happened all along. Ebola can in fact be weaponized and was done by the Soviet Union by the tons. This likely possibility is only now being picked up on by the media.

 

ISLAMIC State members could be planning to infect themselves with Ebola and travelling to the West, waging bio-terror as “suicide bombs”, according to a military expert.

Captain Al Shimkus, Ret., a Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, said terrorist groups like IS could easily use human carriers to widely disseminate the deadly virus via the world’s air transportation system.

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“The individual exposed to the Ebola virus would be the carrier,” Shimkus told Forbes.