this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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Science Memes

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submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 123 points 8 months ago (4 children)

When I was young my Dad bought me some mercury home from work.. I loved how it moved when I shook the bottle and the weight of it.

When I had my own kids I didn’t want it around, so our local council had set up a event where you could dispose of household liquids like old paints and solvents, so I took it down. When I drove up, the guy asked me what I was disposing of so I said mercury. It was bizarre. I was told to stay in the car and a guy came out of a shed in a full hazmat suit with one of those pairs of metal tongs to retrieve it from me.

I remember Dad telling me that miners used to collect gold pan tailings in mercury and then of a night they would hollow out a potato and put the mercury in, and then put that in the camp fire.. it would burn off the mercury and leave a little ingot of gold.

[–] [email protected] 111 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Probably because they didn't know WHICH type of mercury you had. Organic mercury can kill on touch with a single drop. Best not to take chances.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 8 months ago (4 children)

I had to search for "organic mercury", it's dimethylmercury and it doesn't look like mercury at all. Do people really call it "mercury" or "organic mercury"? It's on par with pounds as a measure of mass, weight, and force by the amount of confusion, I'd say 🤔

::: spoiler sad story that was in the top of search results about dimethylmercury: Wikipedia excerpt: Karen Elizabeth Wetterhahn (October 16, 1948 – June 8, 1997), also known as Karen Wetterhahn Jennette, was an American professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, who specialized in toxic metal exposure. She died of mercury poisoning at the age of 48 due to accidental exposure to the extremely toxic organic mercury compound dimethylmercury (Hg(CH3)2). Protective gloves in use at the time of the incident provided insufficient protection, and exposure to only a few drops of the chemical absorbed through the gloves proved to be fatal after less than a year. sad but also a bit ironic fate 🫡 that's why I prefer not to do dangerous things even when protection and/or safety is in place.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago

Do people really call it "mercury" or "organic mercury"? It's on par with pounds as a measure of mass, weight, and force by the amount of confusion, I'd say

No, I doubt it. There aren't very many uses for dimethylmercury due to its potential lethality. I would assume the people who actually use it in a lab setting are going to call it dimethylmercury, especially considering organic mercury usually refers to methylmercury, or one of the other less harmful organomercury compounds.

I think the confusion probably stems from the original article about the scientist who passed. Dimethylmercury is made from a reaction of methylmercury, and they are both organomercuric compounds.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 8 months ago

Yeah. Elemental is mostly harmless if you aren't around it for long and don't inhale vapors.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

Source? I'm not sure who to believe. People on the internet who claim it's safe enough that you can pick it up or people on the internet who claim kills you if you touch it.

I'm not going to go swimming in a mercury pool any time soon either way.

[–] xkforce 29 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Chemist (and biochemist) here. Organometallic compounds of Mercury are primarily dangerous because Mercury ions bond fairly strongly to soft ligands like sulfhydryl groups found near the active sites of enzymes. This can result in the displacement of the metal ions or otherwise disrupt the structure needed for enzyme functionality. Mercury metal OTOH is considerably less reactive. It is not safe to breathe in for prolonged periods of time but it is no where near as toxic as its organometallic derivatives are. Dimethyl Mercury for example, is extremely dangerous. A single drop has 100+ times the organomercury content needed to kill someone.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I think they are saying it depends what you mean by "mercury" because some compounds are both toxic and readily absorbed through the skin.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago

Exactly that. Elemental mercury (ie: the liquid metal form) doesn't readily absorb through the skin. It gives off vapors which are harmful with extended or repeated contact, but generally it's not super dangerous to be around.(Not totally safe though)

Organic mercury compounds (eg: methylmercury) are extremely toxic because they can be absorbed through the skin, and can traverse the blood brain barrier

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[–] FuglyDuck 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

you can always consult the Material Safety Data Sheet

For comparison, dimethyl mercury

Elemental mercury is not going to kill you if you touch it- wash hands and call a doctor. they'll probably be like, "Take two asprin and call me int he morning so I can bill you twice." you definitely don't want to inhale it, but outside of something like a fire or being heated, adequate ventilation is sufficient; if ventilation isn't possible a respirator is a good idea. Dimethyl on the other hand... is nasty.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Out in the edge of the lower mainland of BC by Hope, where there was a mini gold rush a long time ago you can find lots and lots of mercury sitting below the water levels when the streams dry out during the summer.

It is all left behind from the miners back in the day.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (4 children)

It's actually harmless if not ingested. They were being weird.

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[–] spittingimage 101 points 8 months ago (6 children)

Nine out of ten hatters recommend that you don't do this. The tenth hatter purple monkey dishwasher.

(Victorian-era hat makers were notorious for going mad because they used mercury to treat felt cloth.)

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I wondered what the Mercury actually did with the felt, as I couldn't think of anything from the top of my hat:

Mercury made the felting process in hat production more efficient. The compound used to moisten the fibers was Mercury Nitrate, a process known as carroting. It produced a superior-quality felt, which in turn, resulted in higher-quality hats

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Mercury Nitrate

Which, should be noted, is not the mercury show in the picture. Mercuric nitrates are a white/yellow dry powder that is the result of mixing mercury with nitric acid. The process of making mercuric nitrates, and carroting itself, both result in rather toxic fumes that you really should not breathe in.

Handling liquid mercury is basically almost harmless as it absorbs through the skin really slowly and doesn't produce much vapours. Putting it in acid, heating it up, and putting the cloth treated with it in an oven is not.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I wonder what secondary compounds this was creating. Elemental mercury is pretty much fine, but if it was reacting with other things to create wacky fun times...

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[–] overcast5348 12 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Is this the origin story of The Mad Hatter? 🙄

[–] spittingimage 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Could have been. I know Lewis Carroll liked to lampoon issues of the day in his writing.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

Sneaky Simpsons reference here for those who didn’t notice.

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If anyone else was reminded of that video of a 110lb anvil floating in a tub of mercury, here you go. Don't try this at home.

[–] FuglyDuck 26 points 8 months ago (2 children)

didn't they use to use shitloads of mercury for floating the lenses on a lighthouse, letting it turn without too much in the way of friction?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Anyone who’s studied high school physics will also remember one of the biggest blunders of modern experimental physics: the Michelson-Morley Experiment which infamously attempted to prove the existence of the aether but rather gave them a pretty clear confirmation of a lack of the aether. It actually ended up helping form one of the basic tenets of Einstein’s Special Relativity, which is that the speed of light is constant within an inertial frame of reference.

They floated their interferometer setup on a sandstone slab measuring 1.5m x 1.5m x 0.3m in a giant circular trough of mercury in order to provide near-zero friction and reduce vibrations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson%E2%80%93Morley_experiment

[–] TIMMAY 15 points 8 months ago

Not only is this technique still used to insulate large optical devices such as telescopes but liquid mercury is even spun around to create mirrors for telescopes: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-mirror_telescope

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

That's right, I often forget about that.

[–] Bsher8365 52 points 8 months ago (1 children)

From the same issue:

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Is, uhh... Is he floatin' on a pool of mercury?

[–] Bsher8365 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That he is. Looks like fun, right?

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Pure mercury metal is pretty chill, just done fuck with organic mercury compounds

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago

Is no one going to comment on the font rendering

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I've played with mercury when I was a kid. Hopefully it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass when I'm old.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Both my parents have told me playing with mercury like this was pretty common when they were kids. One's still alive. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (2 children)

My aunt even drank some and nothing happened.

Metallic mercury should be fine. Not the fumes though.

[–] AnUnusualRelic 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

It was commonly used as medicine for quite some time.

It didn't work, but then nothing much did at the time.

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

Photo: Robert W. Madden

Oh, he be Madden alright.

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