Sandia scientists help solve anthrax case When the FBI approached Sandia National Laboratories scientist Joseph Michael in February 2002, federal officials were worried. Five people had died after someone mailed anthrax to five news organizations and two U.S. senators, and federal investigators needed to answer a pressing question: Could the anthrax have come from a terrorist group or a foreign state? Within a month of getting their first anthrax samples, Michael and his colleagues were able to answer the question: The sample did not appear to be "weaponized" anthrax — anthrax converted in a weapons research lab to enhance its lethality. The finding contradicted earlier reports that it was weaponized, which had been repeated for years and fed the public's worry....