DeeKnow’s Grotto

About 30 vials that possibly contain samples of the bacteria that causes bubonic plague were reported missing from a lab at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, a law enforcement official said.

Officials are also claiming that the bacteria is of a type that is unlikely to be useful as a weapon of mass destruction, so I guess George-W will be ruling out Osama or Sadam as suspects.

Some scary stats about the plague are that there are 1000-3000 reports of cases of the Plague each year, and between 10-15 in the United states. Most disturbing is that a secret Japanese army group apparently dumped Plague carrying fleas over areas of China during the second world war causing an outbreak which killed about 100 people.

While we're on the topic of diseases, if your interested in outbreaks of nasty communicable bugs, check out the World Health Organisation outbreak news page. Last year I read the uncomfortably scary accounts of Ebola outbreaks in the book the Hot Zone and as at the time there were outbreaks in Gabon in Africa I followed the WHO reports at the time with great interest.

5:39:11 PM  

New Scientist is reporting that the speed of gravity has been measured for the first time. 'The landmark experiment shows that it travels at the speed of light, meaning that Einstein's general theory of relativity has passed another test with flying colours.'

5:37:53 PM  

according to an article on the SMH - "Demand for the "happy drug" Prozac in treating Australian children with depression can be expected to rise after approval by a United States authority for its prescription for patients aged seven to 17".

5:35:52 PM