Originally published at: Chess player allegedly tried to poison rival by smearing mercury on chess board (video) - Boing Boing
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Via Allen Rose Hill…
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Unless they make thermometers meaner in Dagestan that seems like a curious timeline for metallic mercury exposure.
It’s obviously a bad plan(and, correspondingly, deeply unethical to do to someone else); but the world is full to bursting of older childhood stories of playing with little mercury globules without any sort of immediately noticeable impact. Even the really alarming cases of methyl and dimethyl mercury, where absorption is chillingly fast, don’t tend to mention acute symptoms; just inexorable ones some time later.
Something more bioavailable? Objective of scaring the target succeeded to the point of imagined symptoms of metal poisoning?
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Maybe mercury with traces of arsenic?
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I’m with you. 1) I thought liquid mercury in a thermometer needed a wound in the skin or long term exposure or be a vapor. 2) That it took time to create symptoms. 3) Does liquid mercury stick to things? Was there something else to make it adhere? I would have though you would notice some sort of residue on the piece. 4) Pretty freaking wild you poison someone over chess. 
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No, and that’s unusual. It’s one of the reasons why finding a safe alternative to mercury is so hard.
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This is a strange story. The victim started feeling poorly 30 minutes in.
But if a thermomenter of mercury was emptied onto the board, wouldnt it likely pool in a corner? Did she become aware of it, sort of “what is this stuff?” It’d look like a little liquid metal terminator, wouldnt it?
Ran a finger in it, realized it was mercury?
Details we will probably never know.
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yeah (in agreement with several comments above). if she really felt sick after just touching it, it wasn’t the mercury.
one of many possible sources:
What Happens If You Touch Mercury?
Kelly, can you handle this? Yes, even if it’s mercury.
Image Credit: Lost_in_translation/Shutterstock.com
Mercury is known for its toxicity and for causing health problems around the world and throughout history. But humans are very curious about what’s dangerous and so the question comes up often: Can you touch mercury with your bare hands safely? The answer, surprisingly, is yes.
Mercury is not absorbed through our skin, so it is ok to touch it without suffering any ill effects. Mercury has a viscosity between that of water and whole milk, but a much higher density. It’s 13 times as dense as water so a major surprise would be just how heavy a few drops of mercury in the palm of your hand would be. …
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I’m not sure I’d be as casual as he is about it, but at least the area is ventilated and he has a bund set up.
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How does one smear mercury?
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The only thing it sticks to that I’m aware of is gold. I had a friend in high school who got some on his class ring accidentally; it spread out and covered the entire gold surface, and he had to go to the chemistry teacher for help in cleaning it.
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“Mercury has only been liquid for a few years. Before that, it was a solid metal. Now that it’s convenient, it’s liquid. I think that’s disrespectful to both liquids and solids.”
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