Nanotechnologists are targets of Unabomber copycat

Chronicle of Higher Education : University campuses across Mexico are on alert after two professors were injured by a package bomb at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education earlier this August. Both men are expected to recover. The incident was the latest in a series of attacks by a terror group (or a single person posing as such) that calls itself “Individualities Tending Toward Savagery” and credits Theodore Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, as an inspiration. The group’s rhetorical style may indicate affiliation with a college, according to one analyst, who also helped identify the Unabomber. In an online statement claiming credit for the Monterrey Institute bombing, the group cites fears that the rapid acceleration of nanotechnology will lead to the development of self-replicating nanomachines. The University of the Americas, Puebla, the first Mexican institution to offer an undergraduate nanotechnology major, has sent an email message to all students, professors, and staff, warning them not to open suspicious packages. And Mexican law enforcement has called on universities across the country to strengthen their security.