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.
Edit: page 1 on the SDS for pure sulfur.
I’m pretty sure that licking pure magnesium would make your tongue explode too.
I would not be willing to lick calcium, too
Definitely not licking pure lithium, sodium, or any of the alkali (s-block) metals. My tongue is wet. That shit explodes in water, yo.
I wonder if you’d get a sort of leidenfrost effect limiting the extent of damage.
I’m not going to test that though.
Magnesium is fine (see response above). https://invidious.darkness.services/watch?v=Q_4I30Nz_b0 Just don’t vomit on it before you lick it, 'cause it’ll get spicy with acid.
Mg is an alkaline earth metal, not an alkali metal. :). Still have zero desire whatsoever to eat elemental Mg.
But I did say s-block didn’t I. That’s on me, I set the bar too low.
Yeah, the only reason I replied was because you were responding to the calcium dude above, then said “s-block”. Just wanted to spread the good word of the 9th-most abundant element in the universe 🙏
Frankly I’m amazed I even got as much of that right as I did. It’s been more than 20 years since I took a chemistry class—a lot of them—but still. It’s been a minute.
I have elemental magnesium (4 ~50g ingots, I keep it in my library in a barely-sealed ziplock). 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)
ETA: Would I stick my tongue in pyrophoric magnesium powder? No, and you wouldn’t do that with pyrophoric aluminum or zinc powders, either, but that doesn’t stop me from using (or licking) alumnum foil. Proof: https://invidious.darkness.services/watch?v=Q_4I30Nz_b0
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.
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.
My degree is in bio but if I’m remembering my coursework correctly, this is the legend that’s supposed to be on it.
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.
I see we’re continuing the trend of scaring literally everyone when a scientist gets excited.
From my elementary knowledge of chemistry:
I had to go looking for Mercury and Lead and sure enough they look about right.
Column 1 reacts with water so you bet that’ll hurt. Hydrogen needs a boost to start reacting with oxygen so no naked flame is recommended.
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.
Needs a “how fast can you move your tongue?” label for the unstable elements.
Is it really that bad to lick something that disappears after nanoseconds?
It doesn’t disappear, it becomes a different element.
Well, yeah. I guess it depends on into what they transform.
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”.
“Please, tell me how!”
Oh yeah just lick the carbon. It’s probably fine.
It is. Activated carbon is used to treat diarrhoea, you basically swallow a chunk of carbon that absorbs any moisture it comes across
Don’t lick carbon nano tubes or buckyball. Also in general carbon powder can be a particulate inhalation issue.
The table is about licking specifically. It’s not a breathability table. Just so that is clear.
I assume if it’s getting anywhere near your mouth you’d also be breathing it but aside from that, ingestion is also a nogo.
The ingestion/breathability table might be more restrictive. Like, elemental Sulfur is
perfectly fineno actually it’s not fine— but probably unpleasant to lick. Contact dermatitis likely but not life threatening—just one lick, ok; promise no more? ;)Breathing elemental Sulfur is also going to result in contact dermatitis -inside the lungs. Which is going make a really bad day.
Activated carbon is also used in water treatment to remove taste/odours and many organic pollutants.
“organic pollutants” are made of carbon too
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.
Diarrhea is also mostly carbon.
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The carbon being pure is not the basis for my joke
Have you never licked a diamond before? You’re missing out.
Tastes like a campfire.
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). Plus the density of mercury is going make it hard for you to slurp up a significant quantity the stuff anyway.
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 soluble varieties that give mercury it’s reputation.
The story of the professor who was studying dimethyl mercury is terrifying
:( oh no now I must search for it
Chubbyemus take on it was pretty good
Ahh good old chubbyemu. I did read it from Wikipedia though, I found it really sad and tragic
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
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.
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.
I’m no chemist but - can you lick a gas?
Edit: pick
Define “lick”.
Just freeze them
If you lick anything at minus 200, you’re going to have a bad time.
That was my schoolmate…
Your tongue is definitely gonna stick to it.
Guess I’m built different then
You can lick liquid nitrogen, that’s pretty close
Can you really?
You can stick your tongue in it. Wouldn’t recommend actually trying to get anything in your mouth.
You’re protected by the thin layer of nitrogen that immediately sublimates, this lasts until the nitrogen heats up so the liquid can touch you directly, which you want to avoid.
For mostly the same reason you can stick a finger into molten lead (without losing said finger), provided you do it fast enough and your finger is wet enough.
You’ve never seen the trick where you put a small amount of liquid nitrogen in your mouth to demonstrate… science, IDK something to do with lederhosen?
Don’t swallow it though, then you’ll get a perforated stomach.
I’m not entirely sure that’s completely accurate…
Same concern. It’s even arguable you can only lick solids (and lap liquids). This would make hydrogen a Must Not Lick, for example, if we could only consider solid forms.
Too distracted by the misspelling in the title
you can always answer how likable they are?
Mid at best. There’s a lot of stuff you don’t want anywhere near your mouth on there.
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.
Licking bismuth would be very very very very very bad
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?
Listen to this guy. He’s serious bismuth
Mfer I’ll go lick my rainbow Lovecraftian City looking rocks right now to spite you
Bismuth bangers 4 lyfe
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My life long dream is to lick a block of Berylium and see what it tastes like. Are you SURE this chart is accurate?
Since the green isn’t labelled “yes you can” I stopped reading…
I mean, technically you can lick any of them…
(Once)
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.
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Yes you can lick a gas. Have you ever tasted a fart?
