Margaret E. Kosal

The materials chemistry of porphyrins and metalloporphyrins

Porphyrins and metalloporphyrins provide an extremely versatile nanometer-sized building block for the control of materials properties. Films, solids and microporous solids have been explored as field-responsive materials (i.e. interactions with applied electric, magnetic or electromagnetic fields) and as ‘chemo-responsive’ materials (i.e. interactions with other chemical species as sensors or for selective binding or catalysis).

A calcium-bridged porphyrin coordination network

The hydrothermal assembly of a very stable porphyrin network with nanoscale cavities is described. A tightly packed and interpenetrated, linear polymeric framework was observed in the solid-state X-ray structure of freebase 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin coordinated to calcium(II) ions. Strong hydrogen-bonding interactions between the coordination polymers form a two-dimensional network. Perpendicular bands interpenetrate generating an unusual three-dimensional box that clathrates a pyridine molecule.

Terrorism Targeting Industrial Chemical Facilities: Strategic Motivations and the Implications for U.S. Security

Policy to reduce the threat of a terrorist attack against industrial chemical facilities—critical infrastructure with potential to cause mass casualties—is being driven by incomplete and, in some cases, incorrect assumptions. This article chronicles incidents by non-state actors directed at the chemical industry and explores the strategic considerations prompting groups to target the industry. By incorporating motivations for targeting infrastructure a more robust, comprehensive risk assessment is realized. Analysis challenging the “insider” threat paradigm and recommendations to ameliorate the potential effects are also presented. These are found to differ substantially from the leading policy measures currently advocated.

The security implications of nanotechnology

Although nanotechnology offers much hope, it also has dual-use potential that must be addressed. Past attempts to control chemical and biological weapons are instructive but inadequate.

A New Role for Public Health in Bioterrorism Deterrence

When this commentary was submitted in April 2014, only a handful of scholars and policy-makers in the defense and security communities were following the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which was over 4 months old at that time. Now that thousands of people have died, cases have spread to the US and Europe, and thousands of US uniformed military are being deployed on humanitarian assistance/disaster relief missions, attention and interest are significantly heightened. The events of the last few months demonstrate the criticality for interdisciplinary thinking, which is more challenging due to different historical contexts, knowledge bases, interests, lexicon, and perspectives.

Near-field scanning optical microscopy of zinc-porphyrin crystals

Using a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM), crystals of zinc-porphyrin network materials are characterized with respect to morphology and fluorescence. Needle-shaped crystals are observed. While the topography is flat, the fluorescence intensity profile in the width direction is approximately triangular. A numerical calculation shows that differences between the topographic and optical images cannot be due to an artifact. In some needle-shaped crystals, the fluorescence emission is strongly peaked at one or both ends, possibly indicating a polar crystal structure.

Anticipating the Biological Proliferation Threat of Nanotechnology: Challenges for International Arms Control Regimes

This chapter explores challenges—both in the technical realm and in international arms control regimes and laws—in the pursuit of nanotechnology as it intersects with the proliferation of biological weapons. Nanotechnology is thriving in academia, in the private sector, and in state science and technology programs. The security implications, both for traditional non-proliferation regimes and for misuse by non-state actors, have not received commensurate attention with other technological advances. At the same time, policy makers and the scientific community, domestically and internationally, are attempting to develop new means to address risks associated with biotechnology, including synthetic genomics. Although the potential threats of nanotechnology research in an age of terrorism or a new age of state-based proliferation may not be as easy to envision in the near term as those associated with biotechnology, the possibilities are becoming more real as nanotechnology is transitioned from the laboratory to products. A number of recent advances in nanotechnology have strongly suggested nanotechnology’s malfeasant potential in the hands of adversaries.

Nancy N. Chen and Lesley A. Sharp, eds., Bioinsecurity and Vulnerability (Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research Press, 2014), 320 pages. ISBN: 978-1-938645-42-6. Paperback

In the introduction to Bioinsecurity and Vulnerability, editors Nancy N. Chen and Lesley A. Sharp argue that ‘‘global security is paramount’’ in the biosecurity strategies of the United States and other nations, ‘‘but individual or community survival is not’’ (pp. xiv). The objective of Chen’s and Sharp’s book is to upend this perspective and focus on how biology-related security issues and policies are related to human security at local and personal levels. Thus, the contributors intentionally critique and reframe the challenges commonly referenced in the context of biosecurity, including bioterrorism, biological weapons, public health, global epidemics, and re-emerging infectious diseases. Overall, this book is well organized and coherent, which is a credit to the contributors and editors. The editors have divided the volume into three sections organized around unifying themes: ‘‘Framing Biosecurity: Global Dangers,’’ ‘‘Critical Resources: Securing Survival,’’ and ‘‘Vulnerability and Resilience: The ‘Bio’ of Insecurity.’’ Each section begins with an illustrated introduction that is especially useful for tying together the ideas contained therein. The first chapter in each section anchors the section theoretically, and the remaining chapters provide in-depth ethnographic cases relevant to the section’s theme. This model works very well for edited volumes, and other editors would do well to replicate it. Six of the ten chapters are rich case studies that explore how issues of human insecurity with some biologically relevant component play out in a particular state and affect local communities and individuals. Specifically, these chapters address the violent crime rate

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In the last few years, the Islamic State, or IS, has become a central focus of public debates about U.S. national security. A May 2016 poll by the Pew Research Center reported that 80 percent of Am...

The Strategic Illogic of Counterterrorism Policy

Since the beginning of World War II, the US military has been a prime mover in developing new technologies. The research and development that led to jet aircraft, radar, microelectronics, and the Internet was largely backed by military funding. Approximately 58 percent of the United States’ FY 2008 RD Turk, ch. 8) of nanotechnology and other converging technologies in relation to potential national security threats. Of note is the stated impetus for the project: What if intelligence communities came together twenty-five years ago to think strategically about future developments in biotechnology? – Eds.