Microbes Easy to Get Hold of: Several weeks after the start of the nation's worst biological attack, the federal government has no central inventory of dangerous disease cultures maintained by academics and private labs. Bacteria and viruses are commonly exchanged in informal arrangements. And researchers aren't required to track their stocks or report losses or thefts. These lax controls make the nation's universities, health agencies and laboratories easy targets for would-be biological terrorists. A 1999 bill that would have closed many of these gaps was supported both by the Clinton administration and many congressional Republicans. But the legislation died amid strong opposition from universities.