Nichole Broderick found a great example of this when she was studying a soil-dwelling microbe called Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. It produces toxins that can kill insects by punching holes in their guts. Farmers have exploited this ability since the 1920s, by spraying Bt onto crops as a living pesticide. Even organic farmers do this. The bacterium’s effectiveness is undeniable, but for decades scientists had the wrong idea about how it kills. They assumed that its toxins inflict so much damage that their victims starve to death. But this couldn’t be the whole story. It takes more than a week
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Bt.
