• rtxn@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Realistically, a geoscientist doesn’t really have to worry about accidentally licking some superheavy elements beyond plutonium, and if they do, they should be a lot more concerned about lead, being fired at them, after breaking into a particle accelerator because they wanted to know the taste of oganesson.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          8 days ago

          It’s not my problem that they try to hide the forbidden tastes, if they didn’t want me to break in they should’ve stopped shooting at me and screaming “He took Jim’s kidneys!” frankly the nerve of some people. Should’ve just invited me in, far less lethalities.

        • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          Because a single lick probably won’t kill you. The dose makes the poison and all. The highly radioactive ones will (see polonium tea).

        • Baguette@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          9 days ago

          Depends on the state of mercury. Mercury in an inorganic state is survivable. It’d probably still mess up your organs. Organic mercury or mercury in its vapor form is a lot more dangerous, and can cross the blood brain barrier.

          A medical video essay about mercury: https://youtu.be/NJ7M01jV058

          • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            A high school chemistry teacher once mentioned a story about someone who tried to commit suicide by drinking a beaker of mercury. He mostly just got the shits from it. But they stopped letting the kids play with it because of that mercury vapour.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        I’m surprised uranium is only yellow, thought it chemically wrecked havoc on our fragile organic compounds and was difficult/impossible for the body to get rid of.

        • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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          8 days ago

          Uranium in its unenriched natural state is very almost stable. not entirely. but not so unstable that being in the same room as it long term will cause problems. even licking it the concern is less radiation and more heavy metal poisoning

          • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            Yeah, I had it mixed up with plutonium, which isn’t just more radioactive but also chemically reactive. Thought that 2nd part applied to both of them.

      • Seleni@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        As mercury softened the gums, calomel was the principal constituent of teething powders until the mid-twentieth century.

        O_o

        • rtxn@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Not the dodgiest claim for snake oil. When radium was discovered, snake oil salesmen started putting that shit in everything from tonics to toothpaste to fucking makeup. The rationale was that brief exposure to a high radiation dose killed cells, so low dose radiation over a long period must surely kill weak diseased cells and leave healthy ones alive. They claimed curative effects from non-addictive pain relief to curing erectile dysfunction and improving your sex life by strapping radium to your ballsack. The kind of stuff that, were it still around today, Trump would hail as the ultimate COVID prevention and cure-it-all.