Hooked on Biology

Like with radium, this is about poisoning, so proceed with caution. It's not quite so gruesome, but as you might know, it used to be a very popular poison. In fact, it was the  poison to use. Please enjoy!     In Ye Olden Days, a nybody who was anybody was using the cool kid trendy poison, arsenic, because it was undetectable and has very general symptoms - more on that later. It's been known to be dangerous since ancient times and is featured in many stories about people trying to kill their relatives. Lovely. Anyway, we enter the Victorian era, and suddenly we have women eating a form of arsenic (white arsenic/arsenic trioxide, the most dangerous kind when they knew it was dangerous) and chalk to whiten their skin.     In  1858 we have what is known as the Bradford Sweet Poisoning, with 21 deaths as a result of some incompetent people buying and selling white arsenic instead of powdered gypsum (seriously, the dude sold them in the same store and just vagu...

Before you read this, a quick trigger warning. Radiation poisoning can be quite gruesome and it  has a disturbing history, so please take care of yourself and be aware that there will be discussion about signs of radium poisoning. Otherwise, please enjoy!      The thing about radium that makes it so interesting is that it tricks the body into thinking it's something important. Now, the problem is that something is a thing that should be in your body for a very long time - namely, calcium. Exposure to radium in any form is bad enough, but when it sneaks into your digestive system and hides away in your bones...you've got problems. These include commonly known things like cancer, from the radiation attacking unprotected flesh, but can also include brittle or disappearing bones, rotting flesh, wounds that don't heal, and more.      You have heard about radium poisoning from the stories of the girls who painted glowing watch dials in the early 1900s, known...