In the past few weeks, two Chinese scientists who deliberately poisoned people were in the news. Aili Wang, a microbiology grad student at the University of Wyoming, was arrested at the airport while trying to flee to China after buying a chemical on eBay and allegedly putting it in her victim’s tea.
The chemical, acrylamide, is a naturally occurring substance in many foods, and the poisoner, using her scientific knowledge, may have hoped that it would go undetected in an autopsy. Wang also appeared to have rummaged through her rival’s research into cancer therapy and was trying to escape back to her native China with significant amounts of digital material.
At the same time a previous poisoning case involving a Chinese researcher was in the news as David Xu, a Berkeley engineer, who had been caught pouring cadmium into a colleague’s water bottle, had his felony conviction expunged by the pro-crime system in the Bay Area.
