Anthrax suspect borrowed dryer

Bruce E. Ivins, the government’s leading suspect in the 2001 anthrax killings, borrowed freeze-drying equipment from a bioweapons lab that allows scientists to quickly convert wet germ cultures into dry spores, sources briefed on the case told the Washington Post.

Ivins’ possession of the drying equipment, known as a lyopholizer, could help investigators explain how he may have been able to send letters containing anthrax spores to U.S. senators and news organizations, causing five deaths.

But an Ivins colleague at the Army’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at Fort Detrick, Md., said Ivins worked on at least one project that would have given him reason to use the equipment.