Modern biological science considers a population as a structural unit of a species and an evolutionary process. The main criteria of the population are the number and structure. Population size is influenced by such factors as mortality and birth rate. These are the main processes, the ratio of which determines whether the population will increase, decrease or remain stable. An extremely important role in shaping the structure and size of the population is played by the factor of ecology 1.

English economist and philosopher Thomas R. Maltus (1766-1834), studying the laws of the demographic process, created a theory according to which the growth of the human population occurs exponentially, while the accumulation of food resources is subject to a linear relationship 2.

In a later historical period, the prediction of the size of a human population began to be studied from the point of view of the hyperbolic law of growth 3.

Evidence of such a rapid growth of population on planet Earth can be an increase in the population from 2 to 7 billion in 70 years after the end of the 2nd World War.

The post-war demographic explosion of the population was accompanied by a change in the qualitative composition of the population and renewal of its structure. A functionally active role in society began to fall on the shoulders of the younger generation. The main engine of scientific and technological progress in society has become intelligence, based on knowledge acquired at universities. As a result of the development of highly efficient technological schemes, civilization has been enriched with modern industry and new types of energy. At the same time, it has been established that about 6 billion tons of CO 2 enter the Earth's atmosphere annually by man-made routes. The ecology of planet Earth is facing the problem of global warming and climate change: an ecological crisis has become inevitable 4. The changing environmental factor is already beginning to affect the population of some animal species, especially in the Arctic and Antarctic zones.

It is difficult to assess the damage caused to the human population from disasters at nuclear facilities such as Chelyabinsk-40 (1957), Chernobyl (1986), Fukushima (2011).

In the middle of the 20th century, a revolutionary event in the field of biological science was the discovery of the double-stranded structure of DNA 5. It outlined the path to deciphering the genetic code of the heredity of living organisms. Genetic engineering has become available to researchers who want to manipulate the properties of microorganisms.

The idea of obtaining highly active pathogens by genetic engineering was picked up by specialists developing bacteriological weapons. Despite the prohibition by the UN, in countries with authoritarian (totalitarian) regimes, such as the USSR, China, North Korea, Iran, the accumulation of highly dangerous pathogens continued 6. The use of military aerosol preparations containing anthrax spores was found by Arab terrorists who committed in September 2001. attack on the USA 7. An example of an acute epidemiological situation can be an outbreak of anthrax at a military facility, which claimed more than 100 human lives (Sverdlovsk 1979).