Chemistry Blog muses about names: (4aR,5aS,8aR,8a1S,15aS)-4a1,5,5a,7,8,8a1,15,15a-octahydro-2H-4,6-methanoindolo[3,2,1-ij]oxepino[2,3,4-de]pyrrolo[2,3-h]quinolin-14(4aH)-one. Imagine if Agatha Christie had to write that every time she had to mention the poison used in the murder, or if Hitchcock’s leading man had to vocalise it in the courtroom. Well they’d never get the book or the film down to a manageable size. It’s much easier […]
Tag: poison
Wild about thallium, not about head wax
From the short essay “Periodic Craziness“, about Deborah Blum’s probably-unique attempt to get her son to enjoy chemistry: I say. “Tl, that’s thallium. Incredibly cool poison. Almost perfect if you wanted to kill someone. Except for one thing. Guess what that is?” Silence. Minor eye roll. My son knows I’m going to tell him anyway. “It […]
Be she the scientific scourge of cats?
A November 1 report in the Los Angeles Times reads like an extract from a crime novel: Smithsonian bird researcher is convicted of trying to poison cats A postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoo was found guilty Monday of attempting to poison cats in her northwest Washington neighborhood. Security […]
Death by chili pepper?
Katherine Gammon, writing for Life’s Little Mysteries, interviewed 1999 Ig Nobel Prize winner (for developing a spiceless jalapeno chili pepper) Paul Bosland a pointed question: Can Eating Too Much Spicy Food Kill You? What exactly are the health impacts of eating really hot chili peppers? Can eating too much of the spicy stuff kill you? To answer this […]