[escepticos] Cient íficos asesinados tras confer encia

Vie Jun 27 22:17:22 WEST 2008

Esto sin embargo pertenece al mundo real ... la
interpretación ya es otra cosa.

Scientists' deaths are under the microscope

By ALANNA MITCHELL, SIMON COOPER AND CAROLYN ABRAHAM

COMPILED BY ALANNA MITCHELL

Saturday, May 4, 2002

Eleven microbiologists mysteriously dead over the span of
just five
months. Some of them world leaders in developing
weapons-grade
biological plagues. Others the best in figuring out how to
stop
millions from dying because of biological weapons. Still
others,
experts in the theory of bioterrorism.

Throw in a few Russian defectors, a few nervy U.S. biotech
companies,
a deranged assassin or two, a bit of Elvis, a couple of
Satanists, a
subtle hint of espionage, a big whack of imagination, and
the plot is
complete, if a bit reminiscent of James Bond.

The first three died in the space of just over a week in
November.
Benito Que, 52, was an expert in infectious diseases and
cellular
biology at the Miami Medical School. Police originally
suspected that
he had been beaten on Nov. 12 in a carjacking in the medical
school's
parking lot. Strangely enough, though, his body showed no
signs of a
beating. Doctors then began to suspect a stroke.

Just four days after Dr. Que fell unconscious came the
mysterious
disappearance of Don Wiley, 57, one of the foremost
microbiologists
in the United States. Dr. Wiley, of the Howard Hughes
Medical
Institute at Harvard University, was an expert on how the
immune
system responds to viral attacks such as the classic
doomsday plagues
of HIV, ebola and influenza.

He had just bought tickets to take his son to Graceland the
following
day. Police found his rental car on a bridge outside
Memphis, Tenn.
His body was later found in the Mississippi River. Forensic
experts
said he may have had a dizzy spell and have fallen off the
bridge.

Just five days after that, the world-class microbiologist
and
high-profile Russian defector Valdimir Pasechnik, 64, fell
dead. The
pathologist who did the autopsy, and who also happened to be
associated with Britain's spy agency, concluded he died of a
stroke.

Dr. Pasechnik, who defected to the United Kingdom in 1989,
played a
huge role in Russian biowarfare and helped to figure out how
to
modify cruise missiles to deliver the agents of mass
biological
destruction.

The next two deaths came four days apart in December. Robert
Schwartz, 57, was stabbed and slashed with what police
believe was a
sword in his farmhouse in Leesberg, Va. His daughter, who
identifies
herself as a pagan high priestess, and several of her fellow
pagans
have been charged.

Dr. Schwartz was an expert in DNA sequencing and pathogenic
micro-organisms, who worked at the Center for Innovative
Technology
in Herndon, Va.

Four days later, Nguyen Van Set, 44, died at work in
Geelong,
Australia, in a laboratory accident. He entered an airlocked
storage
lab and died from exposure to nitrogen. Other scientists at
the
animal diseases facility of the Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organization had just come to fame for
discovering a virulent strain of mousepox, which could be
modified to
affect smallpox.

Then in February, the Russian microbiologist Victor
Korshunov, 56, an
expert in intestinal bacteria of children around the world,
was
bashed over the head near his home in Moscow. Five days
later the
British microbiologist Ian Langford, 40, was found dead in
his home
near Norwich, England, naked from the waist down and wedged
under a
chair. He was an expert in environmental risks and disease.

Two weeks later, two prominent microbiologists died in San
Francisco.
Tanya Holzmayer, 46, a Russian who moved to the U.S. in
1989, focused
on the part of the human molecular structure that could be
affected
best by medicine.

She was killed by fellow microbiologist Guyang (Matthew)
Huang, 38,
who shot her seven times when she opened the door to a pizza
delivery. Then he shot himself.

The final two deaths came one day after the other in March.
David
Wynn-Williams, 55, a respected astrobiologist with the
British
Antarctic Survey, who studied the habits of microbes that
might
survive in outer space, died in a freak road accident near
his home
in Cambridge, England. He was hit by a car while he was
jogging.

The following day, Steven Mostow, 63, known as Dr. Flu for
his
expertise in treating influenza, and a noted expert in
bioterrorism,
died when the airplane he was piloting crashed near Denver.

So what does any of it mean?

"Statistically, what are the chances?" wondered a prominent
North
American microbiologist reached last night at an
international
meeting of infectious-disease specialists in Chicago.

Janet Shoemaker, director of public and scientific affairs
of the
American Society for Microbiology in Washington, D.C.,
pointed out
yesterday that there are about 20,000 academic researchers
in
microbiology in the U.S. Still, not all of these are of the
elevated
calibre of those recently deceased.

She had a chilling, final thought. When microbiologists die
in a lab,
there's a way of taking note of the deaths and adding them
up. When
they die in freakish accidents outside the lab, nobody keeps
track.

Suspicious deaths

The sudden and suspicious deaths of 11 of the world's
leading
microbiologists.

Who they were:

1. Nov. 12, 2001:

Benito Que was said to have been beaten in a Miami parking
lot and died
later.

2. Nov. 16, 2001:

Don C. Wiley went missing. Was found Dec. 20. Investigators
said he
got dizzy on a Memphis bridge and fell to his death in a
river.

3. Nov. 21, 2001:

Vladimir Pasechnik, former high-level Russian microbiologist
who
defected in 1989 to the U.K. apparently died from a stroke.

4. Dec. 10, 2001:

Robert M. Schwartz was stabbed to death in Leesberg, Va.
Three
Satanists have been arrested.

5. Dec. 14, 2001:

Nguyen Van Set died in an airlock filled with nitrogen in
his lab in
Geelong, Australia.

6. Feb. 9, 2002:

Victor Korshunov had his head bashed in near his home in
Moscow.

7. Feb. 14, 2002:

Ian Langford was found partially naked and wedged under a
chair in
Norwich, England.

8. 9. Feb. 28, 2002:

San Francisco resident Tanya Holzmayer was killed by a
microbiologist
colleague, Guyang Huang, who shot her as she took delivery
of a pizza
and then apparently shot himself.

10. March 24, 2002:

David Wynn-Williams died in a road accident near his home in
Cambridge, England.

11. March 25, 2002:

Steven Mostow of the Colorado Health Sciences Centre, killed
in a
plane he was flying near Denver.

>Por suerte, ocurrió en un mundo virtual :)
>http://weblogs.madrimasd.org/sistemas_inteligentes/archive/2008/06/25/95485.aspx
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