I have no idea what to make of this

[BT]

http://thirteenthmonkey.blogspot.com/2011/06/e-coli-germany-bio-weapon.html

Read the article

Read the comments.

[BSB]

Well, I haven't heard anyone who I'd think of as being responsible in the field say it looked like a an act of biological warfare. Doesn't mean they haven't, but if they have I haven't heard it. As for the anti-Jewish tone of the responses? They're just that, anti-Semitic.

BSB

[Plane]

Nature does this , all the time , at a low rate.

Human beings can do this we recently learned how.

The Enemy within: A New Pattern of Antibiotic Resistance
...Instead he was worried about a bacterium that a routine culture had...
March 22, 2011 – Scientific American Magazine By Maryn McKenna
Gut bacteria gene complement dwarfs human genome
...Scientists hope to use this genetic information much as they hope to use...
March 03, 2010 – Nature
http://www.scientificamerican.com/search/?q=bacterium+genetic+share

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-enemy-within

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-bacteria-gene-complement-d

The human body contains about ten times as many microbes as human cells, and most of them live in the gut. The new study, published today in Nature1, shows that, between them, those microbes contain 3.3 million genes, dwarfing the human genome's 23,000. The authors also find that the bacterial species in one person's gut are not as different from those of others as had been expected.

  Does the search for scapegoats run in old ruts?

[Plane]

A microbe, descended from microorganisms common in the human gut, migrates to the genital region and flourishes, expanding both its size and the complexity of its genome. Trichomonas vaginalis has 10 times the genetic material of its closest microbial peers and more confirmed genes--26,000--than its human host. Plus, with the potential for up to 34,000 yet-to-be confirmed genes, the eukaryote has the biggest genome of any single-celled organism yet sequenced, according to a study in the January 12 Science. It also happens to be the infectious agent behind the estimated 170 million cases of trichomoniasis that occur worldwide every year.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/

"It has more than 800 genes coding for surface proteins and that's a huge number to have," Carlton says. "We don't know why."

One possible cause of this proliferation of genetic material is that the microbe has simply added that of some of its neighbors along the way; at least one gene appears to have crossed over from another bacteria at some point in the past, allowing the pathogen to make its own amino acid for the first time. The researchers speculate that the genome swelled in size as T. vaginalis made the bold move from its ancestral home in the gut to its new domain in the genitals, a migration that is also entirely mysterious.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=genetic-secrets-of-the-wo

I wonder if in less sophisticated cultures gut bacteria have had as much opportunity to migrate towards genitals as have our society's bacteria?

[Xavier_Onassis]

There is some evidence that Jews belonging to the Levi, Cohen and Cantor castes are descendants of early Hebrews, as they are all related. There is very little evidence that those of the Israel caste are similarly related to ancient Hebrews or to one another. In the period 200-1200 AD, there were numerous converts to Judaism in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia, particularly among Turkic tribes, such as the Kazars.

So a genetic disease might target Palestinians and also many Jews whose ancestors lived in Palisrael.

It is one thing to try to invent a genetic disease, but another to actually succeed at it.