BlueDot Narrated
Audio versions of the core readings, blog posts, and papers from BlueDot courses.
Episodes
207 episodes
Accelerating Vaccine Development: The 100 Days Mission
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. Original text: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK614029/ Author(s): Aishani Aatr...
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39:22
Day Zero Antivirals for Future Pandemics
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. Original Text: https://press.asimov.com/articles/antiviralsAuthor(s): Brian Wang
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21:57
Biosecurity and the Goals of This Course
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. This introduction to the course underscores its focus on mitigating the risk of catastrophic pandemics, a specific aspect of the complex and multidisciplinary field of biosec...
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15:33
High-Risk Human-Caused Pathogen Exposure Events From 1975-2016
Audio versions of the blog posts and papers from BlueDot courses. This table documents the known human-caused pathogen exposure events from 1975-2016, both accidental and deliberate, from peaceful research and bioweapons programmes...
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15:47
Info Hazard Guidance for Biosecurity Discussions
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. This document introduces the concept of information hazards (often called 'info hazards') and reasoning for why we should be cautious around them. It also provides a list of ...
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23:28
Understanding AI-Facilitated Biological Weapon Development
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses. This report breaks down the categorisation of LLMs and BDTs into more specific subcategories of AI-enabled biological tools at each stage of the risk chain, from ideation to ...
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21:16
Artificial Intelligence and Biological Misuse: Differentiating Risks of Language Models and Biological Design Tools
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.This paper proposes two categories of AI models that could have impacts on biosecurity in different ways: large language models (LLMs) and biological design tools (BDTs). Overall, ...
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21:56
We’re Entering a Golden Age of Engineering Biology
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.Historically, the complexity and unpredictability of biology has meant most scientific progress in this field has come from slow and expensive trial-and-error experiments. This pos...
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21:12
Dual Use Research of Concern in the Life Sciences: Current Issues and Controversies
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.There is a tension in the life sciences between scientific transparency and the need for secrecy to protect national or global security. This report introduces the term 'dual-use r...
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30:12
Pandemic Prevention as Fire-Fighting
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.This article introduces a range of strategies to reduce pandemic risk whilst drawing parallels to fire-fighting interventions. It argues that pandemic prevention, like fire-fightin...
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37:28
The Danger of ‘Invisible’ Biolabs Across the U.S.
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.As synthetic biology techniques develop and the barriers to entry become lower, we are increasingly seeing the development of privately-operated biological labs. These often enforc...
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8:10
Want to Prevent Pandemics? Stop Spillovers
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.This article proposes four key actions that can be taken to prevent outbreaks from zoonotic spillover: protecting tropical forests, regulating or banning live wildlife markets, imp...
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6:07
Addressing the Gap in International Norms for Biosafety
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.The document highlights the need for national-level norms for biosafety, given that a laboratory accident with contagious pathogens could have global implications. Despite guidance...
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9:53
Research Involving Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogens
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.This page gives a brief overview of the NIH's framework for guiding funding decisions on potentially risky research involving enhanced potential pandemic pathogens (ePPPs). Followi...
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7:04
Biological Weapons Convention
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.This Wikipedia article provides an overview of the Biological Weapons Convention, a disarmament treaty that bans the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and...
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9:31
Preventing the Misuse of DNA Synthesis
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.DNA synthesis represents the primary interface between the digital and physical worlds when it comes to synthetic biology - the point at which potentially hazardous information cou...
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9:02
Common Terminology in Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.This resource provides a brief introduction to some of the most common terms used in infectious disease epidemiology.Original text:
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10:47
Toward a Global Pathogen Early Warning System
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.This report covers the current landscape in pathogen early warning and biosurveillance, highlights challenges and identifies opportunities from emerging technologies. You will have...
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37:02
Nowcasting Epidemics of Novel Pathogens: Lessons from COVID-19
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.This paper discusses critical questions for gaining early situational awareness in an outbreak, using COVID-19 as an example. It highlights key queries about the pathogen, transmis...
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37:19
Emerging COVID-19 Success Story: Vietnam's Commitment to Containment
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.Despite sharing a land border with China, Vietnam mounted one of the strongest early responses to COVID-19, reporting only 35 deaths by December 31, 2020, compared to 90,000 in the...
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35:09
We Aren't Prepared for the Next Pandemic
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.It will probably start with a cluster of unusual symptoms. Some of the people with the disease will know each other, but won’t have been exposed to animals, suggesting the infectio...
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19:36
The Worst Covid Strategy Was Not Picking One
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.Original text:https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-op...
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31:55
COVID-19: Examining the Effectiveness of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions
Audio versions of blogs and papers from BlueDot courses.Original text:
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40:39