The MBTA in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security is conducting tests in the T this week to see how fast a hazardous biological attack could spread in-the-wild. If you’ve been taking the T – don’t worry – the materials they are using for the test are harmless.

Jackie Bruno of NECN says:

“Davis Square was tested Tuesday night. Harvard Square and Porter Square will be tested this week… and they’re doing this overnight… when people aren’t on the trains. Earlier this year, the department of homeland security and the MBTA installed sensors to help officials identify and contain biological terror attacks.

These tests will make sure they work. While these tests won’t harm anyone, the threat of a biological terror attack is real.”

It’s very smart to test in-the-wild for these real world disasters. You can test for a biological attack in the lab, or estimate how the disaster would occur, but you don’t truly know how the T or the sensors will hold up in the real world without a test like this.