Cumulative General Science/Technology Quiz

[Sidhe]

IIRC VX holds the worldrecord in nastiness

It's actually Dioxin which is about 200,000 times less harmful than what nature can do in the from of botulism.

Source.

Dioxin is currently reputed to be the most dangerous toxic poison that has ever been made by the hands of man. It follows two poisons of natural origin: the botulism toxin and the diphtheria toxin. Dioxin is 60 thousand times more toxic than cyanide. A dose of only 50 micrograms of dioxin is lethal for a human being: the volume of the dose can be compared to a tiny microscopic piece of a 50-gram pill, cut into 1000 particles.

 

[ori]

It's actually Dioxin which is about 200,000 times less harmful than what nature can do in the from of botulism.

Source.

reading up on it: dioxin and vx both have ld50 values that rival each other and depending on which one you use either one is the nastiest one...

 

[Sidhe]

reading up on it: dioxin and vx both have ld50 values that rival each other and depending on which one you use either one is the nastiest one...

Well I can only go by what I've heard, and the fact that doing a search on the most lethal man made toxin turns up dioxin? Anyway whatever it appears to have the popular vote, if it is equally toxic it seems to be practically unmentioned on the most toxic front?

 

[ori]

oral LD50 of dioxin in rat is 20 µg/kg - for VX it is 12 (rabbit) to 40 (human - estimated)

the difference of course is that dioxin is the much more important toxin being an environmental hazard due to the unlimited idiocy of humans while VX as a chemical weapon is not widely in use - in the end: dioxin is a potent toxin AND a problem - VX is as potent a toxin but not really a problem

Back to the question at hand: any takers? need a hint

 

[GoodGame]

With those wild and crazy flatworms, it's generally something about how they spend some of their sub-adult life in other critters, usually some kind of sea snail, IIRC.

At least to answer your "What's interesting about 'em"

Most of the flatworms have a larval stage where they develop in some other organism, usually a sea snail, but sometimes I fish, IIRC.

Back to the question at hand: any takers? need a hint

 

[Perfection]

The liver fluke inhabits multiple species of animal depending on lifecycle stage?

 

[Sidhe]

oral LD50 of dioxin in rat is 20 µg/kg - for VX it is 12 (rabbit) to 40 (human - estimated)

the difference of course is that dioxin is the much more important toxin being an environmental hazard due to the unlimited idiocy of humans while VX as a chemical weapon is not widely in use - in the end: dioxin is a potent toxin AND a problem - VX is as potent a toxin but not really a problem

Back to the question at hand: any takers? need a hint

OK so the whole interweb is wrong on this one, whatever? By the way your second link is not accessible by the plebian.

 

[ori]

OK so the whole interweb is wrong on this one, whatever? By the way your second link is not accessible by the plebian.

this is not what I meant - and there is really no need to be offended. Sorry I did not notice the link thing - I just used the first google results for each of them.
Seriously - I was just curious about this coming from a toxicology background and thought I'd share it - but I will stop right here

With those wild and crazy flatworms, it's generally something about how they spend some of their sub-adult life in other critters, usually some kind of sea snail, IIRC.

At least to answer your "What's interesting about 'em"

Most of the flatworms have a larval stage where they develop in some other organism, usually a sea snail, but sometimes I fish, IIRC.

The liver fluke inhabits multiple species of animal depending on lifecycle stage?

They do inhabit different species - but that is not really special about them:
they do use two host species (land animals by the way) - with one of them not being a carnivore, yet it eats the other - how do they do that...
Think Futurama

 

[Sidhe]

this is not what I meant - and there is really no need to be offended. Sorry I did not notice the link thing - I just used the first google results for each of them.
Seriously - I was just curious about this coming from a toxicology background and thought I'd share it - but I will stop right here

I wasn't offended at all, I'm perfectly willing to accept your expertise over the internet, that's what I mean by whatever, otherwise I'd be arguing the toss, I'm just surprised such myths are so widespread on t'interweb. Frankly I know from experience that scientists are more reliable than web sites, unless they are scientific web sites. That's why I was a bit miffed I couldn't read the link to confirm what you were saying. No harm no foul.

 

[Perfection]

Oh it's one those that impel its victims to engage in behavior likely to get it eaten.

 

[ori]

Oh it's one those that impel its victims to engage in behavior likely to get it eaten.

- actually I was a tad wrong - they use three species in their life cycle - anyway the bolded part is what I was looking for:

Dicrocoelium dendriticum Life Cycle

The animal in which the adult flukes live is called the definitive host—the host in which the parasite multiplies sexually:

* Adult worms in the liver of the definitive host produce eggs that are washed out in the bile, mixed with the stool, and passed from the body.
* Land snails feed on decaying animal droppings and ingest the eggs, whereupon the eggs hatch, releasing miracidia.
* Miracidia migrate through the gut wall into the snail’s digestive gland, where they multiply asexually. Cercariae are produced. The snail is the first intermediate host for the fluke.
* Cercariae exiting the snail’s tissues are encased in a coating of slime, which is left behind on the vegetation that the snail travels over. Transforming to metacercariaie, the parasites can be very numerous (hundreds in one slime ball) and are protected from drying out by the slime encasing them.
* Foraging ants collect the slime balls and carry them back to the nest, where the slime balls are eaten. Metacercariae encyst in the ant’s body cavity and become infective to the definitive host. One metacercaria travels to the ant’s nervous tissue and encysts there, an event which profoundly influences the ant’s behavior from then on - scientists are still unsure of how this works.
* Infected ants crawl to the tops of blades of grass in the cool evenings and early mornings and cling there. This is the time when herbivores are grazing—the ant’s strange behavior makes the insect much more likely to be eaten by a grazing animal! In the heat of the day, when the dew dries up and animals rest in the shade, the ant that has not been eaten resumes its normal activities, only to ascend again when things cool down.
* Metacercariae in ants that have been eaten migrate up the bile duct into the liver and mature to adult flukes in under two months. At about three months after infection, the worms begin producing eggs.

 

[Mise]

Is there a (natural) biological urge for an ant to climb to the top of a blade of grass? I.e. is there a reason that an ant would do this naturally?

 

[Sidhe]

Indeed I saw it on a Daniel Dennet video, he was using it to emphasise how deadly memes could be. Things that infect people and make them do things they otherwise wouldn't. The ant crawls to the top of the grass and is eaten by the flukes real target or some such I forget how it works exactly.

 

[Perfection]

PEN FLR!

 

[Brighteye]

Why might breathing 100% O2 be dangerous to patients in intensive care?

 

[StarWorms]

Could the sudden surge in O2 put them into shock?

 

[Sidhe]

Crap my boss told me why but I've forgotten.

 

[Truronian]

It'll make them highly flamable?

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Oxidative damage?

 

[Aramazd]

The change in pressure causes them to suffocate?