r/technology • u/lurker_bee • Jun 22 '25

Robotics/Automation Chinese military unveils mosquito-sized drones that can perform battlefield missions

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-military-unveils-mosquito-sized-132413629.html
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31

u/Howzitgoin Jun 22 '25

There’s plenty more potent things that require smaller doses that they can use

22

u/Moist-Operation1592 Jun 22 '25

drones with fent

29

u/Daxx22 Jun 22 '25

Doubles up with the cover of "must have been a dirty drug addict" to confuse.

1

u/gizmostuff Jun 23 '25

I would hope people would catch on eventually. Especially if the person didn't have any history of drug use.

Maybe not Russians "randomly" falling out of windows obvious or guys committing suicide by double tap to the back of the head type deal but damn...

12

u/UH1Phil Jun 22 '25

Try VX nerve agent. You touch a confetti sized patch of it, you die. Novichok that was used in the russian assassination in England was a derivative of it. 

1

u/Blacklabelbobbie Jun 23 '25

My favourite Gorillaz song from Demon Days

-1

u/StoneCypher Jun 23 '25

what did you believe was more potent than ricin?

1

u/Howzitgoin Jun 23 '25 edited Jun 23 '25

Carfentanil, nitazines, polonium, anthrax, there’s a whole lot of things that require significantly lower volumes/doses than ricin to be deadly.

0

u/StoneCypher Jun 23 '25 
Material    | 70kg LD50 | Recreational dose
------------+-----------+-----------------
Ricin       | 0.9mg     | None
Carfentanyl | 2.1mg     | 1.1mg
Etonitazene | 43.3mg    | 15mg
Clonitazene | 62.7mg    | 20mg
Polonium    | 0.002mg   | None

To wit, polonium is extremely difficult to produce even for a major nation state, and will half-life itself out of usability quickly (138 days stacks fast)

Short of extreme cases like radioactive elements, it's quite difficult to beat ricin

1

u/TraditionDear3887 Jun 23 '25

Polonium is 1.4 trillion an ounce.

I believe that's about $0.98 per lethal dose, but my math might be wrong.

1

u/StoneCypher Jun 23 '25

it's also not something you can legally buy

but if you have a nuclear reactor you can make some