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A comment on Superconductivity record sparks wave of follow-up physics. Parent comment

Re:Superconductivity record sparks wave of follow-up physics by Turing_Machine on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @01:00AM (#10077661)
"it becomes odorless (by paralyzing your sense of smell) right around when you need to start getting worried"

I don't know if this is still the case in this litigation-happy age (probably not), but when I was in high school it was a common beginner's chem class experiment to make small quantities of H2S.

My physics teacher once commented that he hated it when they did that, because he'd smell it for a while, then not smell it any more -- leaving him to wonder whether it'd just gone away, or whether people were going to start keeling over.

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Re:Superconductivity record sparks wave of follow-up physics by sleeping_pills on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @03:35AM (#10077974)
Ah the good old days of worry free high school chemistry/physics classes. My chem teacher poured out a pint of mercury and allowed us to push our fingers into it to feel how different it was from liquids like water. Good times.
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Re:Superconductivity record sparks wave of follow-up physics by jonsen on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @05:11AM (#10078185)
Elemental mercury is not very dangerous:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning

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Re:Superconductivity record sparks wave of follow-up physics by idlewords on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @11:01AM (#10079549)
The danger is that some will spill and lie there on the floor for months, filling the room with mercury vapor.
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