Bioweapons are now in the public consciousness. The treat presents a very real clear and present danger globally. Bioterrorism is the deliberate use of microbial agents and toxins as weapons. For a variety of reasons, prior to 9/11 bioweapons were not considered a (very) serious threat to the general public, particularly in the US and Europe. But, times have changed. More sophisticated approaches could be developed. In addition, now we must consider the insidious possibility of human suicide delivery agents. Infected humans could act as dispersal agents for diseases that would otherwise be difficult to weaponize. As the technological capabilities for molecular biology and genomics have significantly improved over the last decade, the applications of biotechnology and synthetic biology to the development of bioweapons has made them cheaper and faster to manufacture that atomic weapons. This lecture reviews the top six most probable bioweapons and some of the possibilities for synthetic weapons in the future. What about the vulnerability to our food and water systems? How prepared are we? What counter-defense strategies need to be in place in the future? What is the likely role of bioweapons in geopolitical global satiability?
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