I swear I feel like I'm dreaming this thread.

That's awesome. I also got hit hard by the science bug (pun intended) as a kid, which I can partly attribute to finding a random virology textbook in an academic bookstore dollar bin. I was obsessed with virology at least until college. I ended up majoring in math in college but made it through Ochem II and did some lab internships before committing to that path. Now I'm a ML/software engineer with a healthy interest in biochem.

Incredible! Obviously tons of credit to you individually, but also huge kudos to your teacher for encouraging your curiosity.

Cool! Though it's a bit scary how easy it would be for someone to make something dangerous as mentioned in the nyt article. The 2018 article ends:

>“There are really only two things that could wipe 30 million people off of the planet: a nuclear weapon, or a biological one,” ....

>“Somehow, the U.S. government fears and prepares for the former, but not remotely for the latter. It baffles me.”

I guess we may have seen that kind of thing happen a year later with covid though that would have been government sponsored mucking around rather than DIY if it wasn't natural. Not sure how we stop that happening again?

That's so cool! If I may ask, what is your level of education?