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Who Said That?
Florida's quote of the day
" If they don’t find a way to cure their plants, they’re sunk."
In a secure Biosafety 3 containment facility at the University of California, Davis, researchers are required to de-robe, pull on scrubs and pass through negative pressure doors – something like an airlock – before they can begin their work. Leaving requires a shower and more airlocks.
“Everything is completely contained,” said MaryLou Polek, whose organization helps fund some of the research done at the facility. “They can’t even take a notebook out. They have to email their results out.”
Biological weapons? Well, in a way.
The building is called the UC Davis Research Containment Facility. And in this state-of-the-art operation, researchers work with exotic pests and pathogens that threaten U.S. agriculture and natural resources – things such as the glassy-winged sharpshooter and the brown marmorated stink bug.
They’re also studying what may be the biggest threat these days to the U.S. citrus industry: the Asian citrus psyllid.
Read more at the Miami Herald.
