Science, Secrecy, and the Smithsonian

Science, Secrecy, and the Smithsonian: The Strange History of the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program tells the story of how in the 1960s the Smithsonian Institution, with its otherwise spotless reputation, got involved in the sordid business of biological warfare. Over a seven-year period, Smithsonian scientists undertook a large-scale biological survey of a group of uninhabited tropical islands in the Pacific but there was a twist. The study had beeninitiated, funded, and was overseen by the U.S. Biological Laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland—home of the American biological warfare program. In signing the contract to perform the survey, the Smithsonian became a literal subcontractor to a secret biological warfare project.