20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents - New England Patriots Forums

***Terry Glenn is a cowgirl*** · 03-27-2008, 10:08 PM

LSD, gunpowder, Viagra, and the Incredible Hulk all have something in common.

1 There went our best chance: In the ninth century, a team of Chinese alchemists trying to synthesize an "elixir of immortality" from saltpeter, sulfur, realgar, and dried honey instead invented gunpowder.

***Terry Glenn is a cowgirl*** · 03-27-2008, 10:09 PM

2 German scientist Hennig Brand stored 50 buckets of urine in his cellar for months in 1675, hoping that it would turn into gold. Instead, an obscure mix of alchemy and chemistry yielded a waxy, glowing goo that spontaneously burst into flame—the element now known as phosphorus.

***Terry Glenn is a cowgirl*** · 03-27-2008, 10:09 PM

3 Soldiers supplied the raw material in vast, sloshing quantities until the 1750s, when Swedish chemist Carl Scheele developed an industrial method of producing phosphorus. He discovered eight other elements, including chlorine, oxygen, and nitrogen, and compounds like ammonia, glycerin, and prussic acid.

***Terry Glenn is a cowgirl*** · 03-27-2008, 10:10 PM

4 Scheele was found dead in his lab at age 43, perhaps owing to his propensity for tasting his own toxic chemicals.

***Terry Glenn is a cowgirl*** · 03-27-2008, 10:12 PM

5 Kevlar, superglue, cellophane, Post-it notes, photographs, and the phonograph: They all emerged from laboratory blunders.

***Terry Glenn is a cowgirl*** · 03-27-2008, 10:12 PM

6 The Flash, created in 1940 for All-American Publications, was the first comic book hero to develop superpowers after a lab accident, attaining "super speed" after inhaling "hard water" vapors.

***Terry Glenn is a cowgirl*** · 03-27-2008, 10:13 PM

7 Other beneficiaries of the Freak Lab Mishap include Plastic Man (struck by a falling drum full of acid), the Hulk (irradiated by an experimental bomb), and of course, Spider-Man (bitten by a radioactive spider).

***Terry Glenn is a cowgirl*** · 03-27-2008, 10:14 PM

8 In real life, perhaps a bigger risk comes from lab-contracted diseases. The world's last documented case of smallpox killed photographer Janet Parker in 1978 after the virus escaped from a lab at the University of Birmingham in England.

***Terry Glenn is a cowgirl*** · 03-27-2008, 10:15 PM

9 But sometimes humans strike back: Alexander Fleming, famous for his serendipitous discovery of penicillin, also chanced upon an antibiotic enzyme in nasal mucus when he sneezed onto a bacterial sample and noticed that his snot kept the microbes in check.

***Terry Glenn is a cowgirl*** · 03-27-2008, 10:17 PM

10 The lab-accident rate in schools and colleges is 100 to 1,000 times greater than at firms like Dow or DuPont.

03-27-2008, 10:08 PM	#1
*Terry Glenn is a cowgirl* Banned Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,883	20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents LSD, gunpowder, Viagra, and the Incredible Hulk all have something in common. 1 There went our best chance: In the ninth century, a team of Chinese alchemists trying to synthesize an "elixir of immortality" from saltpeter, sulfur, realgar, and dried honey instead invented gunpowder.

03-27-2008, 10:09 PM	#2
*Terry Glenn is a cowgirl* Banned Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,883	Re: 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents 2 German scientist Hennig Brand stored 50 buckets of urine in his cellar for months in 1675, hoping that it would turn into gold. Instead, an obscure mix of alchemy and chemistry yielded a waxy, glowing goo that spontaneously burst into flame—the element now known as phosphorus.

03-27-2008, 10:09 PM	#3
*Terry Glenn is a cowgirl* Banned Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,883	Re: 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents 3 Soldiers supplied the raw material in vast, sloshing quantities until the 1750s, when Swedish chemist Carl Scheele developed an industrial method of producing phosphorus. He discovered eight other elements, including chlorine, oxygen, and nitrogen, and compounds like ammonia, glycerin, and prussic acid.

03-27-2008, 10:10 PM	#4
*Terry Glenn is a cowgirl* Banned Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,883	Re: 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents 4 Scheele was found dead in his lab at age 43, perhaps owing to his propensity for tasting his own toxic chemicals.

03-27-2008, 10:12 PM	#5
*Terry Glenn is a cowgirl* Banned Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,883	Re: 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents 5 Kevlar, superglue, cellophane, Post-it notes, photographs, and the phonograph: They all emerged from laboratory blunders.

03-27-2008, 10:13 PM	#7
*Terry Glenn is a cowgirl* Banned Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,883	Re: 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents 7 Other beneficiaries of the Freak Lab Mishap include Plastic Man (struck by a falling drum full of acid), the Hulk (irradiated by an experimental bomb), and of course, Spider-Man (bitten by a radioactive spider).

03-27-2008, 10:14 PM	#8
*Terry Glenn is a cowgirl* Banned Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,883	Re: 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents 8 In real life, perhaps a bigger risk comes from lab-contracted diseases. The world's last documented case of smallpox killed photographer Janet Parker in 1978 after the virus escaped from a lab at the University of Birmingham in England.

03-27-2008, 10:15 PM	#9
*Terry Glenn is a cowgirl* Banned Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,883	Re: 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents 9 But sometimes humans strike back: Alexander Fleming, famous for his serendipitous discovery of penicillin, also chanced upon an antibiotic enzyme in nasal mucus when he sneezed onto a bacterial sample and noticed that his snot kept the microbes in check.

03-27-2008, 10:17 PM	#10
*Terry Glenn is a cowgirl* Banned Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,883	Re: 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents 10 The lab-accident rate in schools and colleges is 100 to 1,000 times greater than at firms like Dow or DuPont.

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