Another dead microbiologist --

[Emillereid]

Mods - second posting since it was suggested that my subject didn't reveal enough.

I just read a post on a yahoo group documenting the death of another microbiologist and suggesting that microbiology has become a deadly business of late. Well obviously I know about the strange death of Dr. Kelly and I think I remember a couple of microbiologists missing and then turning up dead some time later. Has microbiology suddenly become a deadly occupation.

http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/dead_scientists

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/101303/new_perich001.shtml (story about the most recent dead microbiologist -- sounds like he survived all kinds of mishaps except the latest auto crash -- had a seatbelt on even) Had worked for the army.

[Sufi Marmot]

1. I'm not sure I'd consider this guy a "microbiologist"...

Definitely an entomologist, though...a lot of publications in the "Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association", heretofore unknown to me...

-SM

[aquart]

2. What about the bubonic guy on 60 Minutes?

He's a respected scientist of 61 who's facing jail time for reporting missing vials of plague.

Are we trying for a replay of the dark ages?

[Wonk]

6. mp3 of that for those who missed it

3 M

[peacetalksforall]

3. A few months ago there was a list with names of 14? 17?

microbiologists who had died within a short period of time. It was implied that they all knew each other and each other's work.

[Wonk]

4. List here

Nov 12, 2001ÑMar 25, 2002: 13 renowned microbiologists
mysteriously die over   the span of less than five months. All
but one or two are killed or murdered under unusual
circumstances. Some are world leaders in   developing
weapons-grade biological plagues. Others are the best in
figuring   out how to stop millions from dying because of
biological weapons. Still   others are experts in the theory
of bioterrorism. [Globe   and Mail, 5/4/02, NY   Times
08/11/02] Nov 12: Benito Que, 52, an expert in infectious  
diseasesÑkilled in carjacking, later deemed possible stroke.
[Globe   and Mail, 5/4/02] Nov. 16: Don Wiley, 57, one of the
world's leading   researchers of deadly virusesÑbody found in
Mississippi River. [CNN, 12/22/01]   Nov 21: Dr. Vladimir
Pasechnik, 64, an expert in adapting germs and viruses   for
military useÑstroke. [NY Times, 11/23/01] Dec   10: Dr. Robert
Schwartz, 57, a leading researcher on DNA sequencing  
analysisÑslain at home. [Washington   Post, 12/12/01] Dec 14:
Nguyen Van Set, 44, his research organization had   just come
to fame for discovering a virus which can be modified to
affect   smallpoxÑdies in an airlock in his lab.   [Sydney  
Morning Herald, 12/12/01] Jan 2002: Ivan Glebov (bandit
attack) and Alexi   Brushlinski (killed in Moscow), both
world-renowned members of the Russian   Academy of Science.
[Pravda, 2/9/02]   Feb 9: Victor Korshunov, 56, head of the
microbiology sub-faculty at the Russian   State Medical
UniversityÑkilled by cranial injury. [Pravda, 2/9/02]   Feb
11: Ian Langford, 40, one of Europe's leading experts on
environmental   riskÑmurdered in home. [London   Times,
2/13/02] Feb 28 (2): Tanya Holzmayer, 46, helped create  
drugs that interfere with replication of the virus that causes
AIDS, and Guyang Huang, 38, a brilliant   scholar highly
regarded in geneticsÑmurder/suicide.   [San Jose Mercury  
News, 2/28/02] Mar 24: David Wynn-Williams, 55, an
astrobiologist with   NASA Ames Research CenterÑkilled while
jogging. [London Times, 3/27/02]   Mar 25: Steven Mostow, 63,
an expert on the threat of bioterrorismÑprivate   plane crash.
[KUSA TV/NBC,   3/26/02]

http://www.wanttoknow.info/911timeline10pg
Source (with working links)

[Sufi Marmot]

8. This list is misleading...

I'm not sure I'd consider Benito Que "an expert in infectious diseases", at least not based on his publication record. Wiley was an X-ray crystallographer who spent most of his career working on influenza, with a small number of papers published on the crystal structure of specific proteins from Ebola and cowpox. Some of the other assignations are dubious as well...

-SM

[Sufi Marmot]

5. Many of them weren't microbiologists...

...and published work was in most cases in fields unrelated to each other. It's unlikely that most of them were acquainted with any of the others...

-SM

[peacetalksforall]

9. What fine line are you defining?

If this is true...(taken from the above)...

"...Some are world leaders in developing
weapons-grade biological plagues. Others are the best in
figuring out how to stop millions from dying because of
biological weapons. Still others are experts in the theory
of bioterrorism." - then

there isn't much difference between microbioligists and experts.

Is there?

[Sufi Marmot]

11. No fine line...

The quote doesn't apply to many of the people on the list, and others only tangentially...

I guess my beef with this list has always been that the people who add names to it have no clue about what the people on the list actually did. Wiley is the best example - he wasn't a microbiologist per se, but an X-ray crystallographer. Because he published a few (less than half a dozen...) papers on the crystal structure of proteins from nasty viruses (Ebola, HIV), he's suddenly a leading virologist. Back when he first disappeared I actually downloaded some of his papers - I highly doubt his lab ever worked with live viruses whatsoever - I seem to recall them getting from another lab a cDNA clone of the gene whose protein they were trying to study.

Benito Que is another example, per my searching he only published less than a dozen papers in the last 10 years or so, none on infectious diseases so far as I can see.

Nguyen Van Set, per my recollection, was a lower level research technician, who just happened to work in the same institute (not the same lab, mind you) which made the mousepox discovery.

I'm not sure I'd consider Steven Mostow "an expert in the threat of bioterrorism", although he was an infectious disease specialist. Articles like this one tend to confuse this issue.

I'm still trying to figure out what sort of leading research on DNA sequencing (which is performed by every molecular biology lab extant these days...) made Robert Schwartz famous...

The Huang - Holzmayer murder suicide appears to be some kind of workplace dispute...

David Wynn-Williams studied cyanobacteria - the direct link to bioterrorism/infectious disease is not immediately obvious to me...

Many on the list weren't "experts" in their fields, by any charitable definition. (Wiley definitely was, however...).

Of all the people on the list, Pasechnik is the most interesting, IMHO...

-SM

[bicentennial_baby]

7. Interesting

"From 1986 to 1992, Perich worked at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., as the vector suppression program manager and research medical entomologist.

In 1992, he moved to work for the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and continued his travels to Southeast Asia, Central and South America, Korea and Africa."

[Paulie]

12. He's a bug killer?

Sounds like a fun job, mostly in the MACRO world. :)

[KFC]

10. A few grocery baggers have recently taken the dirt nap

I think some lawyers have died recently also.