It really is a Small World

I've been on a bit of a news bender lately - seems there's been a lot of intriguing stories to read - stories that wet my nerdy inquisitive need to learn more - stories that have touched my life in some way. The recent suicide of the scientist, Bruce Ivins, expected to be charged in the 2001 anthrax mail scare, is one of the latter.

As many of you know, I served in the U.S. Army for 5 years as a Preventive Medicine Specialist, and the last three years of my enlistment were spent at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Fort Detrick is home to U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), a bioweapons laboratory that was once the center of America's biological warfare efforts. In addition to researching, and working on containment of, deadly diseases such as Lassa fever, SARS and human monkeypox, it was also an anthrax production facility during the years after WWII. Since shifting it's efforts to research in the late 60's, USAMRIID became the only laboratory within the Defense Department to study highly hazardous viruses requiring maximum containment.

As a preventive medicine specialist at Fort Detrick, my primary function was to insure the safety of both military and civilian workers. This included annual inspections of labs, their safety measures (fume hood operation, containment procedures, etc.) and protocols. I had the opportunity to work with Bruce Ivins during the inspection of his labs in the mid 90's.

Scientists are a quirky bunch. If you've never worked with them they are similar to engineers, or intellectual property attorneys (I just realize I've worked with a lot of quirky people ... hmmmm ...). Anyway, Bruce Ivins was no different. He's the kind of guy who wore khaki, polyester pants with white socks and tennis shoes, a button up shirt with a pair of safety goggles stuffed in his lab coat pocket. There was nothing distinguishing about him - nothing to indicate he was anything other than a phenomenal researcher - and in all fairness, that may be all that he was, but it definitely is a small world.

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