<p><a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/files/2012/03/flu.jpg" title=""></a></p><div class="vert-display-toggle collapsible relative flex flex-col items-center "><div class="vert-unit mt-4 mb-3 top-20"><div ad-type="mobile-desktop" class="ad-wrapper vert min-h-boombox flex items-start justify-center" data-ad-mapping="inline" data-ad-slot="Discover/inline-ad" id="div-inline-ad-0"></div></div><span aria-label="Advertisement" class="text-ad mt-1 text-[11px] uppercase">Advertisement</span></div><figure class="fr-image-container fr-full"><img srcset="https://cdn.discovermagazine.com/assets/image/14551/flu-s.webp 480w, https://cdn.discovermagazine.com/assets/image/14551/flu-m.webp 660w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 480px, 660px" src="https://cdn.discovermagazine.com/assets/image/14551/flu-s.jpg" title="flu.jpg" loading="lazy" data-id="14551"><figcaption class="fr-figcaption"><p class="fr-caption"></p></figcaption></figure><p>The ongoing controversy over experimental strains of bird flu is one of those multi-dimensional stories that you just can't fit into one article. I've written about it at <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2011/12/h5n1_the_lab_made_virus_the_u_s_fears_could_be_made_into_a_biological_weapon_.html" title="">Slate</a> and <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2012/02/03/flu-fighters/" title="">here</a> at the Loom, and I can point elsewhere to no end of excellent stuff. Fellow Discover blogger Ed Yong has <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/the-risks-and-benefits-of-publishing-mutant-flu-studies-1.10138" title="">a sharp, concise round-up</a> on the research over at <em>Nature</em>, for example, and Michael Specter has a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/03/12/120312fa_fact_specter" title="">new story</a> on it in this week's New Yorker (subscription required, alas). In tomorrow's <em>New York Times</em>, I take a look into one dimension of the story that has seemed under-explored to me. The controversy over the bird flu revolves around the risk that publishing the full details of the research could lead someone to recreate the virus and unleash a pandemic. Not just a terrorist or a hostile nation, but perhaps even a so-called "garage scientist" toiling at home. Is this a realistic risk, or unfounded fear? After talking to virologists who make viruses for a living and DIY biologists who don't, I find that the answer is pretty complicated. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/health/amateur-biologists-are-new-fear-in-making-a-mutant-flu-virus.html?ref=health" title="">Check it out.</a><a href="http://www.esrf.eu/news/general-old/general-2009/flu/" title="">[Flue virus image: ESRF]</a></p>

Explore the controversy over experimental strains of bird flu and the risks of publishing mutant flu studies. Is the threat real?

Planet Earth

Making Influenza: my story in tomorrow's New York Times

Article

News

Carl Zimmer

Science

The ongoing controversy over experimental strains of bird flu is one of those multi-dimensional stories that you just can't fit into one article. I've written about it at Slate and here at the Loom, and I can point elsewhere to no end of excellent stuff. Fellow Discover blogger Ed Yong has a sharp, concise round-up on the research over at Nature, for example, and Michael Specter has a new story on it in this week's New Yorker (subscription required, alas). In tomorrow's New York Times, I take a look into one dimension of the story that has seemed under-explored to me. The controversy over the bird flu revolves around the risk that publishing the full details of the research could lead someone to recreate the virus and unleash a pandemic. Not just a terrorist or a hostile nation, but perhaps even a so-called "garage scientist" toiling at home. Is this a realistic risk, or unfounded fear? After talking to virologists who make viruses for a living and DIY biologists who don't, I find that the answer is pretty complicated. Check it out.[Flue virus image: ESRF]

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制造流感：我在明日《纽约时报》上的故事

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