My degree is in bio but if I’m remembering my coursework correctly, this is the legend that’s supposed to be on it.
Chemists of Lemmy, how accurate is this likability table?
Submitted 8 months ago by merari42@lemmy.world to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/90bce8f3-0fe1-4672-a969-c83d726de771.jpeg
Comments
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Contravariant@lemmy.world 8 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.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I see we’re continuing the trend of scaring literally everyone when a scientist gets excited.
Admetus@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
From my elementary knowledge of chemistry:
I had to go looking for Mercury and Lead and sure enough they look about right.
Anything in column 7 are desperate to rip electrons away from molecules so yes, permanent damage to your tongue and mouth.
Uranium is alright if you lick it once. A guy ate uranium cake once on TV.
The ‘Please reconsider’ lot seem to be a good way to die a horrible death by radiation.
Tc I believe is technetium which is radioactive and emits gamma rays, perhaps not soluable so stays in your body and you become gamma-man.
MajorHavoc@programming.dev 8 months ago
Needs a “how fast can you move your tongue?” label for the unstable elements.
marcos@lemmy.world 8 months ago
“Please, tell me how!”
jol@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Is it really that bad to lick something that disappears after nanoseconds?
chuckleslord@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It doesn’t disappear, it becomes a different element.
MajorHavoc@programming.dev 8 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”.
IrregularChore@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Elemental mercury isn’t very bioavailable so licking the surface of a pool of mercury isn’t going to hurt you much if at all. (Assuming you just do it once)
If you want to know about the horrible potential for mercury to mess you up look for stories about dimethyl mercury exposure. Its the fat solusble varieties that give mercury it’s reputation.
readthemessage@lemmy.eco.br 8 months ago
The story of the professor that was studying it is terrifying
intensely_human@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Oh yeah just lick the carbon. It’s probably fine.
Maalus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It is. Activated carbon is used to treat diarrhoea, you basically swallow a chunk of carbon that absorbs any moisture it comes across
5oap10116@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Don’t lick carbon nano tubes or buckyball. Also in general carbon powder can be a particulate inhalation issue.
FireRetardant@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Activated carbon is also used in water treatment to remove taste/odours and many organic pollutants.
MotoAsh@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Not moisture but reactive molecules. (I mean, many forms probably do still absorb a good bit but) I forgot the exact chemistry but “activated” means chemically reactive. It binds with all sorts of reactive molecules, like toxins and many other things.
subtext@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Have you never licked a diamond before? You’re missing out.
elbucho@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Tastes like a campfire.
callyral@pawb.social 8 months ago
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
Tyfud@lemmy.world 8 months ago
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
Ois 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.
Eheran@lemmy.world 8 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.
prex@aussie.zone 8 months ago
I’m no chemist but - can you pick a gas?
dogsoahC@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Define “lick”.
whereBeWaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Just freeze them
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
If you lick anything at minus 200, you’re going to have a bad time.
jerkface@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Same concern. It’s even arguable you can only lick solids (and lap liquids). This would make hydrogen a Must Not Lick.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Too distracted by the misspelling in the title
thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
you can always answer how likable they are?
BreadOven@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Mid at best. There’s a lot of stuff you don’t want anywhere near your mouth on there.
rbesfe@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Licking bismuth would be very very very very very bad
MossyFeathers@pawb.social 8 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?
agent_nycto@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Mfer I’ll go lick my rainbow Lovecraftian City looking rocks right now to spite you
agent_nycto@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Dr_Cog@mander.xyz 8 months ago
Listen to this guy. He’s serious bismuth
PenisDuckCuck9001@lemmynsfw.com 8 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?
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Beryllium is mostly only toxic when you breathe it in (there’s even a special disease you get from it), but as a solid, it’s pretty safe afaik.
Not that I recommend it.
TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I mean, technically you can lick any of them…
Talia@feddit.it 8 months ago
(Once)
Johandea@feddit.nu 8 months ago
Can you, though? Can you lick a gas? Am I licking the atmosphere when I stick my tongue out?
Plenty of them are also so rare that there isn’t enough of them to form any lickable matter; solid, liquid or gaseous.
Some have such an incredibly short half-life, you cannot lick it before it decays into something else.
Pulptastic@midwest.social 8 months ago
Yes you can lick a gas. Have you ever tasted a fart?
VoilaChihuahua@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Since the green isn’t labelled “yes you can” I stopped reading…
Zwiebel@feddit.org 8 months ago
Lead should be red
nublug@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
lead’s bad for you, sure, but when some of the other metals on this scale’s red might literally explode your tongue/face/head depending on sample size and saliva accumulation, i’d say yellow fits it pretty well.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Nah, metallic lead is pretty solid. Licking it doesn’t really do much. You shouldn’t ingest lead, but you don’t really ingest it by licking a piece of metal.
Frostbeard@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Same with metallic mercury. But once it evaporates…
dogsoahC@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Idk, just licking it once shouldn’t do much harm, right?
Admetus@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
Given the choice between licking mercury and licking lead, 96% of respondents answered with lead.
~Apologies for the random percentage and quoting fictional data~
Zwiebel@feddit.org 8 months ago
There is no identified threshold or safe level of lead in blood” [AAP 2016]
don@lemm.ee 8 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.
Eheran@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Metallic Mercury is absolutely no problem. They used it to treat congestion back in the day.
pigup@lemmy.world 8 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 was inert and I could keep it in my mouth all day if I wanted ( I do).
ornery_chemist@mander.xyz 8 months ago
that yellow and that green are problematically close
5oap10116@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Chemist here: all the reds are correct but it would take so much time to explain why so many of the greens are super concerning. Every time I see this reposted it’s so concerning…I should just spend the 17 minutes and save a copy pasta response of everything horribly wrong with this.
barnaclebutt@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m pretty sure that licking pure magnesium would make your tongue explode too.
readthemessage@lemmy.eco.br 8 months ago
I would not be willing to lick calcium, too
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I have elemental magnesium. it’s shelf stable and doesn’t react violently with water. Want me to try licking it and let you know? (hint: at worst it’ll make a minuscule amount of milk of magnesia)
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
The LD 50 for sulfur is 2000 MG per kilogram body weight. So you’d probably be fine licking it. You can’t just go off the msds.
Eheran@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You are absolutely fine licking sulfur, it is not going to do anything. In case of a solid block you are not even going to taste anything. Also what the fuck, sulfur is not poisonous, that MSDS is bullshit.