A Wrinkle Out of Time
“The botulinum toxin is so powerful that a tiny amount can suffocate a person by paralyzing the muscles used for breathing. It’s considered one of the world’s most deadly potential agents of bioterrorism and is on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s select agent list of heavily regulated substances … Because of that, Allergan must account to the CDC if even a speck of the toxin goes missing, and when it’s sent to Allergan’s manufacturing facility in Ireland, its travels bring to mind a presidential Secret Service operation—minus literally all of the public attention … A single gram in crystallized form, ‘evenly dispersed and inhaled, would kill more than 1 million people.'” But, hey, let’s not just focus on the negatives. The substance, it turns out, is also a great way to smooth wrinkles. That version of the poison goes by its hip nickname, Botox. And when administered on purpose, the ensuing paralysis is considered a feature, not a bug. As Cynthia Koons explains in Businessweek, this combination of characteristics makes Botox the most lucrative, poisonous, and secret formula on Earth.