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[-] MTK@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago

Wait until you hear about deadly toxin producing bacteria.

You only need about 6 kg of Clostridium botulinum to produce enough toxins to kill all mammals on earth.

Assumptions:

  • weight of a single bacterium is 1 picogram
  • a single bacterium produces 0.5 picograms of toxin
  • All mammals on earth are 1.4 gigatons of mass
  • a lethal dose is 150 nanograms per kg
[-] Mora@pawb.social 7 points 3 days ago
[-] MTK@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago
[-] ulterno@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

Just need to isolate the correct bacterium first.

[-] flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz 6 points 3 days ago

Yes but the delivery is a problem. How do we package, ship and then get each mammal on earth to ingest 150 ng of the toxin?

[-] Lemminary@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

Simple. Start a new plandemic and give out free vaccines! It worked last time, that's why we're all dead.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Deliciosa soup for their family?

[-] MTK@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Well, if all it takes is 6 kg, I don't think it would be that hard to make like a few tons and fly around the world throwing a kg at a time into any body of water you find.

Sure, you wouldn't kill everyone, but probably most 🤷‍♂️

[-] ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago

I think about 96% of mammal biomass is either humans or domestic animals so if we ignore the 4% wild animals it suddenly because a much easier task.

Like, throwing enough botulinum toxin into the ocean to kill all the whales would be annoying.

[-] DJDarren@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 days ago

Are you a Batman villain, threatening to poison Gotham's water supply.

[-] MTK@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

It would a lot less interesting.

Literally everyone dies except a few that drink only bottled water. Society is now 90% people who believe that alkaline water is magic

[-] Riversedgeknight1@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

More likely 10-15% of people die then everyone figures out it's the water, identified the cause of death, develops filters to remove the toxin, and then the filter becomes commercialized.

[-] MTK@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Like the first half of the movie is just what you would expect from a batman movie, but then after thousands die and batman catches the villan it just conintues into a documentary about how this event eventully led to the "2026 Water protection law" and the political fights around it.

[-] misteloct@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Genocide is evolutionary beneficial for the toxin producer, maybe there's a ring of truth to it. Poison everything around you, free up resources for yourself.

[-] mmddmm@lemm.ee 2 points 3 days ago

I always wondered if the toxin didn't kill the bacteria.

[-] ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago

Bacteria doesn't have nerve cells.

this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
1000 points (99.5% liked)

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