@CBRNEsteve Still, how did you arrive at a negative expression, given that the Romans did not know the zero (0)?

RT @CBRNEsteve: I can’t recall how to write 1, 1000, 51, 6, and 500 in Roman numerals… I M LIVID!

#ICC #Netherlands

#BiologicalWeapons #Disarmament #1972BWC #Education

#BiologicalWeapons #Disarmament #1972BWC #Education

#ChemicalWeapons #Syria #Disarmament #OPCW #Qatar After the fall of the Assad regime, Qatar assumed the responsibility of representing Syria. Through the Gulf state's mediation, the visit of the OPCW Director-General became possible. According to a note verbal, the visit of the Director-General to Syria will, inter alia: - allow the Director-General to provide a comprehensive overview of the means at the disposal of the OPCW to assist the Government in meeting its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention; - provide an opportunity to touch upon the 19 outstanding issues left unaddressed by the former government and the possible paths to move them forward; - help initiate, as well, discussions on other tasks and activities ahead required for the implementations of the Secretariat’s mandate in the Syrian Arab Republic, including the mapping, visiting and assessing potentially additional chemical weapons locations and destruction of the residual elements of the chemical weapons programme; - allow both sides to review the existing legal and logistical arrangements in place, including the necessity to expand the presence of the OPCW in Syria on a more permanent basis. The document also has an attachment outlining a 9-point action plan for Syria. Document:

#ChemicalWeapons #Syria #Disarmament #OPCW OPCW Director-General visits Syria; meets with Syrian caretaker authorities to discuss next steps in eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons programme At the invitation of the Syrian caretaker Foreign Minister, the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Fernando Arias, accompanied by a high-level delegation from the OPCW, visited Damascus to meet with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and caretaker Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani. The meetings were long, productive and very open, with an in-depth exchange of information, which will serve as a basis to reach tangible results and break the stalemate that has lasted for over eleven years. The visit marked a first step towards re-establishing a direct working relationship between the OPCW Technical Secretariat and Syria, following eleven years of stagnation and lack of progress with the former authorities. In their meeting, both sides discussed Syria’s obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the role and mandate of the OPCW, and the type of support the Technical Secretariat can provide to the Syrian caretaker authorities in eliminating the remnants of Syria’s chemical weapons programme. [...]

#COVID19 #USA #China #DualUse #Transparency USAID-Funded Pandemic Research Failed To Spot COVID or Ensure Chinese Transparency [...] Thousands of samples collected under the PREDICT program were left at WIV, and have never been publicly sequenced. WIV has rejected U.S. requests for lab notebooks and other information on the virological experiments performed there with the support of U.S. tax dollars. The failure of WIV to be transparent about its U.S.-funded research was one reason that the federal government cited for debarring both WIV and EcoHealth (which had responsibility for overseeing the work of its subgrantee.) [...]

#ChemicalWeapons #BiologicalWeapons #Iran #Armament Former IRGC Minister General Mohsen Rafighdoost: We Produced Chemical And Biological Weapons ... [Note: To be read with caution. The core claim of CBW production towards the end of the war with Iraq has been known and confirmed for a long while. The time frame is indicated by the reference to Iran's first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, who died in June 1989. There is no claim of present-day CBW armament programmes.]

#BiologicalWeapons #Taboo #History Is there a biological weapons taboo, and does it matter? A most excellent book review discussion of the BW taboo by @CrossbowLlc [ #OpenSource - PDF available]

#BiologicalWeapon #Biosafety #Accident #BSL4 #Transparency Galveston biolabs disclose mishaps that potentially exposed workers to infectious diseases [...] The mishap last August is one of three incidents last year where workers were potentially exposed to infectious pathogens inside research labs at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, according to an annual biosafety incident summary lab officials released this week. [...] Each of the safety incidents, which occurred during research aimed at developing disease treatments, was reviewed to find ways to prevent similar mishaps in the future, Ntiforo said. The needlestick incidents resulted in sharing guidance across the Galveston campus on best practices for safely uncapping needles, she said. It is unusual for research labs to proactively release information about lab incidents. At most labs, incidents only become public as a result of journalists or others filing public records requests. [...]

#BiologicalWeapons #RiskManagement The Value of a Biorisk Management System: Enabling Infectious Disease Laboratory Excellence on all Levels [...] At its core, biorisk management (the management of risks associated with biological materials) is about protection—of people, research, institutional reputation, and the broader community. Laboratories deal with a wide array of biological materials, some of which pose significant risks if mishandled or misused. However, at this point, laboratory biosafety and biosecurity are regulatory-driven and require a compliance-based program. While this approach has been well established, it has inherent weaknesses and will ultimately always be limited. [...]

#ChemicalWeapons #NewZealand #OPCW New Zealand contributes over €20,000 to OPCW missions in Syria Voluntary contribution will support the work of OPCW special missions to ensure the full elimination of #Syria's chemical weapons programme

#ChemicalWeapons #Poisoning #Indians #USA #19thCentury Karl Jacoby “The broad platform of extermination”: nature and violence in the nineteenth century North American borderlands. Journal of Genocide Research (2008), 10(2), June, 249–267

#ChemicalWeapons #Russia #Use #UkraineRussiaWar️️ #Disinformation Commentary by the Permanent Representation of the Russian Federation to the OPCW to the Izvestia newspaper (03 February 2025) [...] In particular, in March 2023, we warned about the supply by the United States of America to Ukraine of chemicals with temporarily disabling effects, such as BZ, CS, and CR, and Teren-6 hand grenades equipped with irritant chemicals (such grenades are used by the AFU assault groups). All this was done under the previous White House administration. Therefore, Washington is well aware of Ukraine's flagrant violations of the Convention, but it is defiantly ignoring them. [...]

#ChemicalWeapons #NerveAgents #Detection Ultrasensitive Recognition of Trace Nerve Agents Enabled via a Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence-Based Fluorescent Probe The development of fluorescent probes for the detection of nerve agents has been a significant focus of research due to their lethal toxicity to humans. Inspired by the excited state properties of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), we designed two visualized fluorescence probes, PT and PPT, that exhibit characteristics of delayed fluorescence and aggregation-induced emission. These probes are intended for the rapid and highly sensitive detection of diethyl chlorophosphate (DCP). Upon exposure to DCP vapors, the PT and PPT probes demonstrated rapid fluorescence quenching in less than 5 s, which was accompanied by a color change from yellow to red. The limits of detection for the probes were determined to be 3.0 and 2.9 ppb. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the reduction of acid interference through the use of dispersed SiO2 is an important step in the fabrication of N-heterocyclic nerve agent probes. Importantly, we also constructed a portable fluorescence detector that incorporates these films as key components, validating its applicability through the successful detection of nerve agents.

#ChemicalWeapons #Testing #Algeria #France #NuclearWeapons President Tebboune Demands Full Resolution of France’s Nuclear and Chemical Weapons Legacy in Algeria [...] In addition to nuclear tests, Tebboune raised the equally pressing issue of France’s chemical weapons experiments in Oued Namous, a remote area in southwestern Algeria where highly toxic substances were tested. He recalled his early career in Béchar in the 1970s, when shepherds regularly reported unexplained deaths of livestock, strongly suggesting ongoing environmental contamination from France’s chemical warfare experiments. “We cannot simply sweep this under the rug. These matters must be settled once and for all,” he asserted. [...]

#ChemicalWeapons #Terrorism #Japan #AumShinrikyo #Sarin Ex-NPA official regrets allowing Aum cult to ‘go on the offensive’ [...] Aum Shinrikyo clearly emerged on the radar of the Criminal Affairs Bureau after eight people were killed and more than 600 were injured in a sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, on June 27, 1994. The NPA’s National Research Institute of Police Science reported on Nov. 16, 1994, that a breakdown product of sarin was discovered from soil around a cult facility in Kamikuisshiki. Nine days later, the Criminal Affairs Bureau laid out a basic plan to search Aum Shinrikyo facilities. Under the plan, police would initiate a search within two to three months over the confinement of a former nurse in Yamanashi Prefecture and later open a wider search over the confinement of an inn operator in Miyazaki Prefecture. A total of 600 investigators would be deployed. A meeting to discuss whether to implement the basic plan was held on Dec. 15, attended by Kakimi, NPA Commissioner-General Takaji Kunimatsu, as well as the director-general of the NPA’s Security Bureau and the chief of the First Investigation Division. After one hour of discussions, the participants concluded that a search was premature because details had yet to be fully understood. [...]

#ChemicalWeapons #BiologicalWeapons #NuclearWeapons #Nonproliferation #Ukraine #Trump U.S. foreign aid freeze derails efforts to stem proliferation risks [...] With U.S. funding, the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine, an intergovernmental organization, set out to “rebuild everything,” says STCU’s Mykola Lubiv. Before the funding pause, he says, STCU had lined up vendors to restore the science lab, which probed highly radioactive materials retrieved from the entombed Unit 3 reactor, to install new monitoring equipment at radioactive waste storage sites, and set up a new dosimeter control system for people who work in and near Chornobyl. “If these programs are terminated,” Lubiv says, “critical infrastructure will suffer.” Also suspended, he notes, are U.S.-supported STCU projects aimed at countering nuclear disinformation. Since 2022, Russian propaganda has often claimed, for example, that Ukraine is plotting to fashion a dirty bomb from spent nuclear fuel or other radioactive materials. Efforts now on pause include scientific analyses for debunking specific claims and compiling a database of experts who can provide accurate information on nuclear risks to the media. [...]