the.com/sterilize
The art of declaring chemical war on things too small to negotiate with.
means To make something free of living microorganisms, or to render a person or animal incapable of reproduction.
from From Latin 'sterilis,' meaning barren or unfruitful — the same root that gives us 'sterile.' Originally it described land that wouldn't grow crops and women who couldn't bear children; only later did the sense narrow toward the modern laboratory meaning of killing every last microbe, with the '-ize' ending (Greek '-izein,' to make or do) turning the adjective into an action. So at its heart, to sterilize is to enforce barrenness — whether on a field, a body, or a Petri dish.
- heat threshold
- Autoclaves hit 121C to kill heat-resistant spores
- space rule
- NASA bakes spacecraft so Earth microbes don't colonize Mars
- ancient trick
- Egyptians used honey and fire on wounds
- tough survivors
- Some spores resist boiling water for hours
- gas weapon
- Ethylene oxide sterilizes plastics that melt under heat
operation paperclip — us secretly sterilized 60,000+ people in mental institutions and prisons, 1907-1981
forced sterilization sweden — swedish eugenics program sterilized 63,000 people, mostly women, 1934-1976
indian family planning — indira gandhi's government forcibly sterilized 8+ million people, 1975-1977