鈥淭hey told me that I would not be charged if I were able to confirm the accidental destruction. I was tricked and deceived by the government.鈥�
Thomas Butler of Texas Tech University, who reported plague bacteria missing from his lab early this year. He faces life in prison for saying he destroyed the bacteria, a statement he now says the FBI told him to make (CBSNews.com, 19 October)
鈥淚f it doesn鈥檛 get jail time, then all scientists will continue to do it.鈥�
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Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy commenting on the charges against Butler, which include claims that he 鈥渟muggled鈥� bacteria into the US by carrying vials on an aeroplane, a common practice among microbiologists (CBSNews.com, 19 October)
鈥淭hese cod stocks are at such low levels that we have had to resort to recommending zero catches as a final line in the sand.鈥�
David Griffith, general secretary of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea on cod levels in the North Sea, Irish Sea and west of Scotland (ICES press release, 20 October)
鈥淚 was speechless. Even now, I get this sort of tingling in my body thinking about what we have achieved.鈥�
A supporter of the medicinal use of marijuana, Daniel Kane of California, on the ruling by the US Supreme Court that doctors cannot have their licences revoked for recommending cannabis (The New York Times, 15 October)
鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 force-feed it because we don鈥檛 know which head eats.鈥�
Rodney York, whose son found a two-headed snake in Centertown, Kentucky (CNN.com, 17 October)