Sterilization may refer to: *

Sterilization (microbiology) Sterilization () refers to any process that removes, kills, or deactivates all forms of life (particularly microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, spores, and unicellular eukaryotic organisms) and other biological agents (such as prions or virus ...

, killing or inactivation of micro-organisms *

Soil steam sterilization Soil steam sterilization (soil steaming) is a farming technique that Sterilization (microbiology), sterilizes soil with steam in open fields or greenhouses. Pests of plant cultures such as weeds, bacteria, fungi and viruses are killed through ...

, a farming technique that sterilizes soil with steam in open fields or greenhouses *

Sterilization (medicine) Sterilization (American and British English spelling differences, also spelled sterilisation) is any of several medical methods of permanent birth control that intentionally leaves a person unable to Human reproduction, reproduce. Sterilization ...

renders a human unable to reproduce *

Neutering Neutering, from the Latin ('of neither sex'), is the removal of a non-human animal's sex organ, reproductive organ, either all of it or a considerably large part. The male-specific term is castration, while spaying is usually reserved for female ...

is the surgical sterilization of animals * Irradiation induced sterility is used in the

sterile insect technique The sterile insect technique (SIT) is a method of biological pest control, biological insect control, whereby overwhelming numbers of infertility, sterile insects are released into the wild. The released insects are preferably male, as this is mo ...

* A

chemosterilant A chemosterilant is a chemical compound that causes reproductive sterility in an organism. Chemosterilants are particularly useful in controlling the population of species that are known to cause disease, such as insects, or species that are, in g ...

is a chemical compound that causes sterility *

Sterilization (economics) In macroeconomics, sterilization is action taken by a country's central bank to counter the effects on the money supply caused by a balance of payments surplus or deficit. This can involve open market operations undertaken by the central bank ...

, central bank operations aimed at neutralizing foreign exchange operations' impact on domestic money supply, or offset adverse consequences of large capital flows * A very severe enough

extinction event An extinction event (also known as a mass extinction or biotic crisis) is a widespread and rapid decrease in the biodiversity on Earth. Such an event is identified by a sharp fall in the diversity and abundance of multicellular organisms. It occ ...

that permanently renders a planet like

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

completely uninhabitable to even

microbial life A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...

See also