Word: bacillus
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...population, British authorities asked scientists at the Porton Down bacteriological research unit to conduct a series of experiments. The site: Gruinard Island, a bleak, uninhabited, 1½ mile-long patch of land that lies just 600 yds. off the west coast of northern Scotland. The tests were conducted with Bacillus anthracis, better known as anthrax, which has lethal and well-documented effects on both animals and humans. Anthrax is believed to have caused the fifth plague in Egypt mentioned in the Book of Exodus, and an outbreak of the disease swept through southern Europe in the 17th century, killing thousands...
Lately, subtler forms of warfare have been introduced, including sprays that contain Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), a bacterium that kills various moth and butterfly larvae. It, too, should be applied early. Another new experimental spray spreads a virus that afflicts the gypsies with fatal wilt disease, so called because the dying caterpillar shrivels into a kind of inverted-V shape. More diabolical are traps scented with sex lures to attract male moths. Scientists have also been distributing different types of insects-wasps, flies, beetles-that prey on gypsy moths at various stages in their life cycle...