As an animator and researcher on the piece, I'd want to clear up some details in the comments below: We synthesized viruses as early as 2002,[0] and you can ge

As an animator and researcher on the piece, I'd want to clear up some details in the comments below: We synthesized viruses as early as 2002,[0] and you can get the sequence for Variola right now.[1] Ken Abilek is regarded as largely discredited.[2] Sergei Popov, seen here, made a great variety of claims, but the ones in the documentary seem to be the most consistent with other sources. In particular, a great extra source is Jeanne Guillemin, a medical anthropologist who wrote a variety of books about the Vector institute, its accidental release of anthrax into the city of Sverdlovsk,[3] Ken Abilek and Sergei Popov's claims about what went on in Vector, and the Amerithrax case. Her analysis is largely consistent with experimentation with Variola at the Vector facility in Sverdlovsk, less so the chimeric agent making that allegedly occurred there according to Ken Abilek. Richard Preston argued that man is the demon in the freezer. There is no compelling scientific use for variola today, and if it can be synthesized artificially anyway, there's no compelling use for it sitting around in preposterously expensive high security. Mutually assured destruction by variola was the only reason it was kept around. The Soviet Union was alleged to have filled a handful of missile warheads with variola, along with anthrax and ricin. The Soviet Union was alleged to believe that the United States was developing anti-nuclear weapon technology (it was). But to be clear, the United States for a period of time violated the biological weapons development ban too. Weapon development is crazy business and it's the only legitimate use of variola today. [0] http://www.nature.com/news/2003/031110/full/news031110-17.html http://www.nature.com/news/2003/031110/full/news031110-17.ht... [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NC_001611.1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NC_001611.1 [2] http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/01/nation/na-alibek1 http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/01/nation/na-alibek1 [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak