BW/ What is biological warfare?

What is biological warfare?

This post will explain the concept of biological warfare and look at some of its terminology.

Fear of the unknown. Of the uncontrollable. Of the silent creeping death. Upon all the other strains biological and chemical warfare also have tremendous physiological impact. Although equal in the horror they can cause, from a scientific point of view, the distinction between biological and chemical warfare is quite obvious.

A chemical weapon is any weapon that uses a manufactured chemical to kill people.

A biological weapon either contains a living microorganism like the plague bacteria, or a toxin, which are the naturally occurring poisons that microorganisms produce. Toxins can also be synthesized. The microorganism or toxin used in manufacturing a biological weapon is commonly referred to as agent. Biological agents are targeted at humans, animals or crop. Widespread illness and death, food shortages or an environmental catastrophe are realistic scenarios in the world of biological or germ warfare.

Biological weapons have been referred to as the poor man’s nuclear bomb. And apparently it is true; producing an effective agent can be quite cheap. However, a biological weapon generally consists of two parts – an agent and a delivery mechanism. The manufacture of the delivery mechanism poses a greater difficulty.