PZ Myers. 2004 Oct 22. It's been a rough week. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/its_been_a_rough_week/>. Accessed 2008 Nov 19.

Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Friday, October 22, 2004

It's been a rough week

Long trips to the west coast, tons of grading, a seminar at St. John's yesterday evening…this has been a high-stress week out here at Chez Pharyngula. After I got home late last night, I unwound by pouring a glass of wine and handing the kids some sharp knives and telling them to go at it for my entertainment. The result:

pumpkins

I think the one on the right is supposed to be a portrait of me. Our cat, Midnight, had to get in the act, too, and show off his talent:

cat eyes

I thought about putting a third picture here of my red, glowing eyes, but decided against it. Too horrible. I think I'll be knocking off work early today to try and get some rest before the weekend onslaught (SOFA tonight, guitar concert Saturday, biology club party at my house on Sunday—who says rural living is quiet?)

Posted by PZ Myers on 10/22 at 08:33 AM
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  1. I realize this is a massive hijack, but I'm dying of curiosity about something and you might be able to answer.

    I was slogging through Quicksilver -- again -- and got to the "drinking a giant glass of mercury" bit, and I've got to know: How the hell does your body handle that?

    I mean, it's liquid yeah, but it's heavy and hugely toxic. It's not like the human guts are designed to deal with mercury. How does that stuff actually get handled? How does the body get rid of it? And how much damage does it do? (I realize it's toxic, yes...)
    #: Posted by Morat  on  10/22  at  11:10 AM
  2. Most of it just passes right through, but some gets absorbed. I'm not sure about this, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that gulping down liquid mercury, while still a very, very bad idea, could be less risky than breathing in the vapor for a long time. It's going to slither through your guts rather quickly, at least, leaving traces during a hopefully brief transit.

    Mercury is a bioaccumulative poison, so it just piles up in the cells, particularly in the nervous system. Your body really doesn't exactly 'handle' it -- every dose is doing damage, and the more doses you take, the worse the damage.

    Mercury treatments were cases of chronic poisoning that happened to be slightly less terrible than the disease they were treating.
    #: Posted by PZ Myers  on  10/22  at  11:29 AM
  3. Eww. Sorry. Oh, my 8 year old wants to know if, to put it politely, how this stuff gets out? Bladder or colon? (Not his words).

    Still *shudder*. I don't think I'd like 12 ounces of mercury wandering through my system. I have enough problems in life.

    In that vein, how DO you treat mercury poisoning? Can you treat it like you do arsenic poisoning?
    #: Posted by Morat  on  10/22  at  02:38 PM