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Article: Biological Weapons, Genetic Identification
- Article from:
- World of Forensic Science
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Thomson Gale. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Biological Weapons, Genetic Identification
The ability to use microorganisms and their components as weapons has been a reality for decades. Individual countries and organizations such as the United Nations have mounted efforts to detect the use and presence of microbial weapons. A recent example is the effort by United Nations and United States inspectors to detect
evidence
of microbial weapons in Iraq in the aftermath of the two Gulf Wars.
Initiatives like the aforementioned represent the use of
forensic science
. Traditional forensic investigations relied on the use of techniques that required the growth of the target microorganism. This approach has limitations. For example, the ...