The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) yesterday (September 16) announced it will turn over scientific evidence against their chief suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks, a US army microbiologist who linkurl:committed suicide;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54907/ in July, to scientists at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for independent review. Bruce Ivins, a researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Institute for Infectious Disease at Fort Detrick, Md, conducted studies on anthrax vaccines and was involved in analyzing samples for the FBI in its investigation of the attacks, which killed five people, sickened 17, and created chaos around the country. He committed suicide on July 29, as FBI officials prepared to indict him as the sole culprit in the attacks. In the weeks that followed, FBI officials released evidence showing how scientists working on the investigation had used DNA fingerprinting to trace the anthrax spores to a flask in Ivins' laboratory. However, some scientists, lawmakers,...
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