10 votes

I touched the world's most painful plant - Gympie gympie (the suicide plant)

4 comments

  1. [3]
    asoftbird
    Link
    ah yes, the backyard "usually has a really bad sense of PPE usage" scientist; whacking that one bad plant with a knife & using an angle grinder to cut it up into fine dust and spread it across the...

    ah yes, the backyard "usually has a really bad sense of PPE usage" scientist; whacking that one bad plant with a knife & using an angle grinder to cut it up into fine dust and spread it across the garden, now that is a great idea.

    8 votes
    1. nukeman
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      This reminds me of an incident that happened with Cody’s Lab: One of his videos showed refining uranium ore to metal (part of a series on obtaining the metal elements). It got taken down;...

      This reminds me of an incident that happened with Cody’s Lab: One of his videos showed refining uranium ore to metal (part of a series on obtaining the metal elements). It got taken down; apparently he had a “talking to” with various government agencies. Tons of people were complaining, conspirasizing, saying the government was being anti-science or too secretive (natural uranium ore to metal is very much open literature). I was curious (both naturally and as a nuke worker), so I watched a reupload someone else posted. He started off processing the ore in a ball mill underneath a ShopVac jury-rigged to act as a “hood” in his garage.

      Some things you just don’t cheap out on. Our low activity basin samples are handled in the hood. At bare minimum, he should’ve had a proper fume hood, probably a glovebox. Uranium isn’t the worst thing to be working with, but ultimately it is still a toxic heavy metal, and the daughters can be quite nasty. The government was absolutely right to stop him.

      10 votes
    2. knocklessmonster
      Link Parent
      I'd wager he made sure it wasn't a toxic plant before he did that. According to the Wikipedia article it isn't a poisonous plant like oleander or nightshade the only toxin is in the needles in the...

      I'd wager he made sure it wasn't a toxic plant before he did that.

      According to the Wikipedia article it isn't a poisonous plant like oleander or nightshade the only toxin is in the needles in the leaf, like nettles which can be made into tea or salad. I don't think anybody's eating gimpie gimpie, though, and should I ever hopefully find myself in the Australian bush, I'll be looking for it like I do poison oak.

      2 votes
  2. nothis
    Link
    I know these guys have to make money somehow, but that was a little too much "Keeps".

    I know these guys have to make money somehow, but that was a little too much "Keeps".

    1 vote