Adamism

My favorite movie of all time has to be Jurassic Park. I remember seeing in the theater at least 7 times when it came out. It’s one of those movies I can recite from memory.

The story really got my imagination going. When I was a kid I thought about how interesting it would be to work in a secure facility. A place that you could only reach by ship or helicopter. Whatever I’d do there… it would be dangerous, and exciting!

I got that same sense of excitement and interest when I watched the Will Smith movie I Am Legend. The effects were no match for Jurassic Park (despite having double the production budget) but the concept really sucked me in. What would be like if you had the entire island of Manhattan to yourself? What would you do if you had to protect yourself from monsters? I really love a good movie.

Well, this morning I came across an article about Plum Island, NY. Plum Island is a secure goverment facility that performs animal research. The article goes on to explain that the US Goverment is considering relocating the research they do (specifically Foot and Mouth disease) to a facility in Kansas, Georgia, North Carolina or Mississippi. Each location being significantly closer to a large population of cattle than the remote Plum Island facility.

I know they’re just movies… but haven’t we learned that keeping contagous virus research on a remote island is best for the general public? I’d really like to understand the motivation for relocating the program. Is it hard to get staff that is willing to live on/commute to an island? There have to be some scientists that live for that kind of prestige.