this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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Science Memes

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brilliant as silver (mander.xyz)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[โ€“] [email protected] 59 points 8 months ago (3 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 ๐Ÿค”

::: spoiler sad story that was in the top of search results about dimethylmercury: Wikipedia excerpt: Karen Elizabeth Wetterhahn (October 16, 1948 โ€“ 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 ๐Ÿซก that's why I prefer not to do dangerous things even when protection and/or safety is in place.

[โ€“] [email protected] 27 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.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

And currency!

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Forgot about that, this certainly ~~adds insult to an injury~~ spices it up

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I think chubbyemu did a video about this lady. Absolutely tragic and heart breaking.