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Science Talk

COVID-19: The Need for Secure Labs--and Their Risks

Science Talk

Scientific American

Science

4.2644 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2020

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Coronavirus research requires high-containment labs. Journalist Elisabeth Eaves talks with Scientific American contributing editor W. Wayt Gibbs about her article “The Risks of Building Too Many Bio Labs,” a joint project of the New Yorker and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Ah, Benny's parents, thanks for coming.

0:02.3

Hiya.

0:02.9

So, Benny has really blossomed this term.

0:05.6

You're telling me, he outgrew his bike. We sold it, on eBay.

0:09.6

Oh, that's not quite what I meant.

0:11.1

It's free to sell on there?

0:12.3

Free to sell?

0:13.5

Easy too. Sold Benny's bike, your guitar, my jacket.

0:16.8

You sold my guitar?

0:19.9

Shall we talk about Benny?

0:22.1

When it's this easy to sell for free, you can't help but say when it's eBay.

0:26.7

Things people love. T's and Cs apply, excludes vehicles.

0:31.1

This is Scientific American Science Talk posted on April 3, 2020.

0:36.4

I'm Steve Merski. The coronavirus now leaping across the globe

0:40.7

made its first jump from wild animals, probably bats, to people. But now that virus is being

0:46.7

cultivated in specially equipped biohazard labs, the same kind that are used to store and study

0:52.8

other dangerous microbes, like anthrax

0:55.7

and Ebola.

0:56.9

In an article published recently by the New Yorker and the bulletin of the atomic scientists,

1:02.4

Elizabeth Eves explores the proliferation of these high containment labs, which now number

1:08.3

in the hundreds in the U.S.

1:13.3

She reports that some experts are concerned that the sheer number of such facilities are raising the likelihood of a catastrophic breach.

...

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