Arrests of scientists over smuggled samples add to US border anxiety
11 comments
·June 28, 2025perihelions
otoburb
Did I parse that correctly?
You parsed that one specific incident correctly, but sems like you also missed key parts of the article that helped bring a bit more nuance into the discussion. I thought this rather short Nature article was actually pretty balanced. Two key quotes are:
* "“The rules have not changed” under the Trump administration, Grode says."
* "The hazardousness of the materials that the scientists sent will need to be assessed in each case, as will the scientists’ intent in using the materials, but their lack of transparency will make their cases more difficult, Grode says. “It’s not so much what was being sent, __but the effort to conceal what was being sent__,” he says."
eviks
> * "“The rules have not changed” under the Trump administration, Grode says."
The change in enforcement can have just as much of an impact on reality, so this statement alone isn't very meaningful.
perihelions
I don't see any nuance in the lying cop.
Nor nuance in the Director of the FBI personally getting himself involved, to tweet falsely about this student's "pathogen [sic] smuggling". There's no nuance in those words—words that incited three thousand conspiratorial-minded comments, by the way—three thousand commenters who sincerely, truly believe this C. elegans scientist is a bioterrorist. (Read them for yourself if you like). Where's the nuance in any of that?
Scoundreller
I hope this border craziness doesn't spread to Canada, I like buying fungicides/pesticides in the US that work without paying $$$ to a "professional" to apply it or (& any farmer can fog acres and acres with impunity)
Said professional recommended this treatment in particular, but they won't sell it to you and you can't buy it domestically; Gotta pay their extortion tax for it... unless...
Also makes me wonder if they recommended this restricted product because they think I can't find a shelf on the continent with it and something more available/less-potent might have worked fine
LouisSayers
What's the reason behind the sudden uptick in people being detained? Customs seem really trigger happy, almost as if they've got some quota to meet ...
mystified5016
Usgov wants to spread FUD across her population and anyone who even thinks about the US
That's basically it. This is just the standard fascist playbook.
seatac76
Some of this stuff feels rather sketchy. I’m not sure if this counts towards raising anxiety due to random border control policies.
readthenotes1
If I were in the US government, I would be fairly worried about people bringing in bioweapons, including invasive species (I'm looking at you, kudzu)
> "A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Nature that parasitic roundworms can cause significant damage to crops, leading to economic hardship for farmers. The criminal complaint filed with the case doesn’t mention parasitic roundworms — only Caenorhabditis elegans, a type of roundworm frequently used in the laboratory as a model organism."
A PhD researcher at U. of Michigan was arrested and charged for possession of... C. Elegans? And the secret police dude is telling the media it was a national security threat to US farms?
Did I parse that correctly?