Science and prohibited weapons

The Geneva Protocol, an international treaty prohibiting the use of asphyxiating or poisonous gases and bacteriological methods of warfare, turned 80 years of age last Jun 17. It was fostered in part by a 1918 appeal in which the International Committee of the Red Cross described the use of poisonous gas against soldiers as a "barbarous invention which science is bringing to perfection." With the advances in the life sciences and biotechnology that could make biological weapons more effective, safer to use, more difficult to detect, and therefore more attractive options for would-be users, scientists must be aware of the importance of their own work in upholding and developing international law; in particular, the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.