Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/02/a-video-roundup-of-the-world.html
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An insane number of those things are used recreationally (or cosmetically). Puffer fish venom is the one I was most surprised to learn about. (Like, really? People get high off it? Guess so.)
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That’s enough LSD to get 50,000 people tripping.
You could buy a house with the money made from selling one gram of LSD. Two houses. Or a very nice yacht.
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I’m curious about the Mercury amount, 2.5 grams. In the right (wrong?) form a lot less can kill you:
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I’m guessing that figure was for elemental mercury which is not very bioavailable.
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That would be correct
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What is it that actually kills you, or your nerve cells? I’ve tried to get a clearer understanding of this before. Does the Dimethylmercury molecule “help” the Mercury atom get into the cell where it then “breaks loose” and does its damage? Is the molecule as a whole required to do the damage? Does it actually kill nerve cells or just prevent them from operating properly? Is one molecule enough to “take out” a nerve cell? Once it does whatever it does, does the molecule persist to “attack” more nerve cells? I asked similar questions back when the unfortunate scientist died but did not receive satisfying answers.
Not included on the list was the effect of terrible video voiceover! I was dead within seconds!
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Dolphins love them. Kinda.
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Once you kill nerve cells (ie, your brain) the rest pretty much follows. The dimethly part promotes the ability to cross the blood brain barrier, the methylmercury does the damage.
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How is my 18-month-old son’s poop not on this list?
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On the one hand, I get that… brain dies, you die. But, certainly, we all loose brain cells every day. Rough figures provided by Google search indicate 100 billion cells in the average human brain. That’s a big number. How many molecules were in the 1cc drop that spilled on the glove? How many passed through the glove and the skin and entered the blood stream? One assumes that those molecules that made it are then evenly spread throughout the body… or do they somehow “target” the brain? On the other hand, how many individual cells do you have to kill in order kill the brain? Does the DMM somehow “target” critical cells?
Curiously they left American fast food off the list.
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The one that worries me is water, because, sure it takes a lot to kill you, but what if you diluted it 10:1 with water? Do that a dozen times and it becomes homeopathic water, a single drop of which could kill all of humanity! This is why all water should be clearly labeled: Store in a dry place, away from water.
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Avogadro’s number is 6.022x10exp23 particles per mol. That is a truly enormous number. I lack time and motivation to calculate the molar content of 0.1ml, but any macroscopic quantity of a substance contains an unthinkably huge number of individual particles of a substance, and an unimaginably small amount of this particular stuff is really really bad.
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Hell yes, any homeopath will tell you the more dilute the substance the more potent the effect! It does require “concussion” which is apparently a fancy term for mixing violently, and copious amounts of gullibility, so ymmv.
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Just glad that THC thing isn’t cumulative.
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Hey, neither of the mushrooms they show contain amatoxins!
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If you think that’s bad, look into the effects of dihydrogen monoxide. That is some dangerous stuff.
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