In this episode of The War Lab we confront a terrifying, fast-arriving reality: biology is being engineered into a weapon. Drawing on a Sept. 3, 2025 briefing for senior policymakers, we trace how synthetic biology, cheap DNA synthesis, CRISPR, lab automation, and AI are converting life sciences from descriptive science into engineering—dramatically lowering the bar to design, build, and deploy biological threats.We map the evolving threat matrix—de-novo viruses, engineered pathogens that evade countermeasures, and even precision-guided biological agents—and show why the risk now spans states with Military-Civil Fusion programs, well-resourced proxies, and skilled lone actors or insiders. Then we examine the yawning governance gap: a Biological Weapons Convention without verification, fragile national biodefense pipelines, weak detection, and medical countermeasures that are too slow and narrowly focused for today’s pace of innovation.This episode isn’t just alarmism. It lays out policy levers and practical fixes: a push for BWC verification and transparency, global DNA-screening and “know-your-customer” controls, pathogen-agnostic rapid response platforms (think adaptable mRNA defenses), stronger bio-supply-chain cyber protections, and more realistic strategic wargaming and horizon-scanning.Listen to understand how the AI–biology nexus is reshaping strategic risk—and what governments, industry, and scientists must do now to close the vulnerability gap before catastrophe becomes possible.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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