this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2024
353 points (96.8% liked)

Science Memes

10923 readers
2250 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
353
Chemists of Lemmy, how accurate is this likability table? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
89 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Metallic Mercury is absolutely no problem. They used it to treat congestion back in the day.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

Mid at best. There's a lot of stuff you don't want anywhere near your mouth on there.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

lol You don’t need a table to tell you whether or not you should like an element. Like ‘em all! Also, whoever made the pic misspelled “like” as “lick”. jsyk.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

What's wrong with licking osmium? I know if heated in oxygen it will form osmium tetraoxide which is toxic, but a solid chunk of elemental osmium I thought was inert and I could keep it in my mouth all day if I wanted ( I do).

[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

that yellow and that green are problematically close

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

No they arent

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

i'm not a chemist but is this licking the most common molecule form or the atomic variety

O₂ is safe but i don't think O is

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think it's framed in the context of: "How dangerous would a single molecule be to a human?". In that context, I would say O is safe, only because our body naturally destroys the radical oxygen molecules every day that we create with our anti-oxidants.

True, in a larger quantity than our body can handle, it's extremely toxic; but a single molecule would probably not be too bad.

But I do agree, it shouldn't be Green. It should be Yellow at least.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

O would completely destroy you in lickable quantities. I think you underestimate how extremely reactive it is. Just remember that it is so reactive that it reacts with oxygen to form ozone. This is not a little byproduct in extremely small quantities all throughout the body, which is also not the O radical anyway.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

My life long dream is to lick a block of Berylium and see what it tastes like. Are you SURE this chart is accurate?

[–] [email protected] 73 points 3 months ago (2 children)

My degree is in bio but if I'm remembering my coursework correctly, this is the legend that's supposed to be on it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

I see we're continuing the trend of scaring literally everyone when a scientist gets excited.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago

If someone's licking any of the transuranic elements I'm not sticking around to watch.

Some stuff should simply not exist in a lickable quantity.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Needs a "how fast can you move your tongue?" label for the unstable elements.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

"Please, tell me how!"

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Is it really that bad to lick something that disappears after nanoseconds?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Lol. I meant to accomplish the lick, in the first place.

I have no real sense of the likely consequences, other than "probably not great".

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't disappear, it becomes a different element.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Well, yeah. I guess it depends on into what they transform.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Licking bismuth would be very very very very very bad

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Mfer I'll go lick my rainbow Lovecraftian City looking rocks right now to spite you

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

Bismuth bangers 4 lyfe

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Why? Bismuth is pretty harmless from what I can find. It's not great but it's way better than lead (which it replaced in a lot of applications). Based on what I read, bismuth probably wouldn't hurt you if you gave it a lick.

Are you thinking of benzene?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Listen to this guy. He's serious bismuth

load more comments
view more: next ›