⁶          2019 - 2020

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The work How to Isolate and Amplify Clostridium Botulinum investigates how military powers are embodied by scientific practices. The bacterium Clostridium Botulinum is omnipresent in most soils and produces the highly lethal Botulinum Toxin. In the protocol proposed by the work a detailed hands-on instruction is given of how to isolate and grow weaponizable quantities of the toxin producing bacteria. The protocol contains all materials needed, including hyperlinks to internet vendors of necessary materials with an overall cost of approximately 6000 USD and a time exposure of about 200 hours to produce significant amounts of the toxin. In the early 1990s the Japanese terrorist group Aum Shinrikyo used botulinum toxin at least on 3 occasions. Luckily the attacks failed due to unknown reasons. After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Iraq admitted to the United Nations of having 10 000 L of weaponised botulinum toxin, more than any other biological weapon used by Iraq at that time. Their total stock supply of 19 000 L would approximately constitute the amount needed to kill humanity 3 times by inhalation. While military use of botulinum toxin is dismissed by contemporary research, a terrorist use of the substance is a realistic scenario. The protocol is the result of an online research, considering freely available scientific publications and copying from their methods. The protocol can be circulated as folded brochures or posters with QR codes linking relevant resources.