Operation Sea-Spray was a 1950 U.S. Navy secret biological warfare experiment in which Serratia marcescens and Bacillus globigii bacteria were sprayed over the San Francisco Bay Area in California, in order to determine how vulnerable a city like San Francisco may be to a bioweapon attack. There has been speculation that the experiment may have ...

Because of concern over possible use of biologic warfare (BW) by a foreign power against the United States and its allies, U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson in 1941 asked the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences to investigate all phases of BW. In response, the Research Council appointed a committee of 9 prominent scientists,...