So the NYPD and experts from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory will be releasing gas in subways across the five boroughs. I know it sounds like an episode of Jesse Ventura’s Conspiracy Theory – or an elaborate fart joke – but it’s a real thing. It’s called the Subway-Surface Air Flow Exchange study, or S-SAFE, and it’s funded by a $3.4-million transit security grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, called the study, “the first of its scale to study airflow in a dense, complex urban environment both below and above-ground.” But maybe there is a reason for that. I’ve spent some time in the subways. It’s a frenetic mix of crazy and sane, rushing and catatonic, sober and drunk.  The last thing that they need to add to the mix are “harmless” gasses.

Anyway, the worst possible scenarios are too numerous to name. Perhaps this is a dry run for a massive chemical assault on the subway goers. Saron? What about something biological, that would turn passengers into the monsters from The Last of Us video game.

Or maybe (probably) it really is just a test.