Source: am geoscientist. Licking rocks is one of our university trained skills. I kid not.
Tangent: we printed these t-shirts in undergrad that said “You know you’re a geologist when you can say with a straight face: have you tried licking it?”
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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
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.
Are there any dangerous ones? Like, “this is either slate or megamurderstone. You can tell the difference because the latter tastes more tangy and then you melt from the inside”?
It’s statistically improbable, but possible
Almost all minerals you’ll find in the wild are bog standard ones.
Tangent about slate, shale, and clay. One of the diagnostic properties is “grain size”. To determine if soil is clay or silt sized particles, one of the common tests is: rub it on a tooth – if it feels smooth, the particles are clay sized. Slate and shale are clay minerals, and will feel smooth on a tooth if rubbed in the direction of the grain. If it doesn’t feel smooth, then it’s a siltstone or similar.
No. Potassium chloride is more bitter.
Source: am geoscientist. Licking rocks is one of our university trained skills. I kid not.
Tangent: we printed these t-shirts in undergrad that said “You know you’re a geologist when you can say with a straight face: have you tried licking it?”
Are there many rocks declared “hazardous- do not lick”? Beyond maybe lava?
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.
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.
I suspect that if you ate all the Oganesson that has ever been produced, you’d probably be fine because it’s such a small amount
I have some in my spice cabinet, its the secret ingredient to my meatloaf
Why is Beryllium worse than Lithium?
Edit: apparently beryllium ions will fuck up your magnesium containing enzymes.
Why is Mercury and fucking Cadmium only in “you really shouldnt”?
Because a single lick probably won’t kill you. The dose makes the poison and all. The highly radioactive ones will (see polonium tea).
But if youre already close enough to lick, arent you fucked anyway? May as well savor it.
Polonium emits alpha radiation. It becomes hazardous when it is ingested or inhaled.
Okay so if i were to get my face close enough to lick iylt while holding my breath id be fine?
Only one way to find out, and I would never deprive you of the opportunity to contribute to science.
If Im in the position where I can lid neptunium, you best fucking believe Im doing it
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
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.
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.
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
It gives you heavy metal poisoning, but less so than lead
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.
Generally speaking, you usually have an idea of what it is before you lick it.
But any minerals mercury would be usually be a no go. Here’s a fun one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calomel since we’re talking about chlorides ;)
O_o
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.
Are there any dangerous ones? Like, “this is either slate or megamurderstone. You can tell the difference because the latter tastes more tangy and then you melt from the inside”?
It’s statistically improbable, but possible Almost all minerals you’ll find in the wild are bog standard ones.
Tangent about slate, shale, and clay. One of the diagnostic properties is “grain size”. To determine if soil is clay or silt sized particles, one of the common tests is: rub it on a tooth – if it feels smooth, the particles are clay sized. Slate and shale are clay minerals, and will feel smooth on a tooth if rubbed in the direction of the grain. If it doesn’t feel smooth, then it’s a siltstone or similar.
Reminds me of this video.