Re: Can the microwaving of the anthrax virus destroy it?

Filiberto -

     Good question! From what I can find, its seems that microwaving could kill anthrax spores (and most bacterial spores), but that this might not be an effective way to treat the mail. In the included link, the author tried microwaving a xerox copy of a paper with some pretty strange effects.

     From what I recall, ultraviolet radiation is supposed to be used as an antibacterial in postal systems. That's what we use in our laboratories to kill unwanted bugs.

     Some interesting links:
About microwave radiation as anti-bacterial:

http://www.scienceagogo.com/newsforum7/messages/447.shtml
http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/wjk/mwaves.html

Hope that helps!

Alex Goddard
cgoddard@fas.harvard.edu