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Obligatory story: reactormag.com/a-tall-tail/

As a non-chemist reading about this incident: all I can hope is someone decided to play a very stupid and expensive prank by saying this was something it wasn’t!

Why am I only learning of Prof. Watterhahn now! Sheri Sangji was the name I learned during my doctorate research, I turned down doing a demo with t-BuLi dragons breath… in a lecture! And the Ox of a lad in University of Southampton that was poisoned with thallium.

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that ChatGPT or similar was involved here. Either in directing the student in how to make it, saying it needed made, or telling the student they had made it.

Excellent summary. And warning.

HF has an out (calcium gluconate, lots of water), albeit a narrow one. Me2Hg has no out - no antidote and easily absorbed through skin and by vapor. It's a lot worse than HF (also the amounts - a few drops killed Prof. Wetterhahn, while that much HF would probably make you very unhappy not dead.

Easily among the most horrifically evil substances to see the light of day.

I admit I am SURPRISED by the adrenaline spike I feel, despite it being 11 PM. And yeah, good on that grad student for self-reporting on even the fucking *inkling* of being exposed.