Presented by Ann Fiegen, Kevin Bonham, and Tina Liu

When a team of scientists discovered in 2011 how to make the deadly H5N1 “Avian flu” virus transmissible through air, it stirred a debate about scientific ethics and national security that has raged for months everywhere from the top levels of the National Institutes of Health to the front page of the New York Times. In tonight’s lecture we address the questions swirling around this controversy: What was so dangerous about this discovery that led the US government to ask that a prestigious scientific journal censor the scientists’ reports, why are scientists pursuing such controversial research in the first place, and what role should the government take in controlling the dissemination of scientific advancements?