By the invitation of Dr. Ray Zilinskas, I spoke at a departmental seminar at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies today, where I presented my research on the impacts of recent technological advances on the biosecurity landscape. I was the first undergraduate to ever be invited and to speak at such a seminar at MIIS, a graduate-only institution.
Scholars claim that recent technology advances mean that even teenagers can make bioweapons. While this is theoretically possible, it is also very unlikely. Mr. Liu presents a plausible pathway for amateur biohackers to engineer a weapon and assess the difficulty of every step. Furthermore, he comments on how improvements in DNA editing may alter the biosecurity landscape.
You can find out more about my seminar on the MIIS James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies website here.