Natures Poisons | Nature is out to get us

Time 2020-10-15 09:02:40

Web Name: Natures Poisons | Nature is out to get us

WebSite: http://naturespoisons.com

ID:82792

Keywords:

Nature,is,Natures,

Description:

I have some very exciting news! You can probably guess what it is based on the title of this post, but that s OK, I ll say it again. I m writing a book! I always wanted to write and be a writer. Even as a little kid, I envisioned living in Maine (why I don t know, but The upas tree is ripe with legends and myths, going so far as to say no one can get within 10 miles of it without dying. Explore the legends and science of the famed upas tree, here. Continue reading The 100th post on Nature s Poisons! The Poisonous ABCs: From Aconitine to Zetekitoxin. Continue reading The fall of 1952 was a busy time of year in Storm Lake, Iowa. Farmers tended to their crops, as the hot, dry summer poured into October, and children eagerly anticipated Halloween. It was especially busy for State Conservation Officer Frank Starr. He spent October burying bodies. A lot of bodies. By his count, there Continue reading I love dogs, they really are our best friends, and for good reason. The most important being that a dog is less likely to eat you when you die. If your body is found a week after you die, your dog is probably going to be found, hungry, beside you. A cat? They won t wait Continue reading You all know my penchant for things to be descriptively named, like Death Camas. With a name like that, you know to leave it alone and definitely not eat it. I’m also not a fan of foraging, there are too many poisonous look-alikes out there. I’m not an expert in identifying wild edibles, and likely Continue reading We all know the fable of the three little pigs. The first pig made their house from straw, the second made theirs out of sticks, and the smart one a humble abode of bricks. The Big Bad Wolf easily destroyed the first two homes they were made of straw and sticks after all. But Continue reading I don t write a lot about insects, but there s a good reason for it. I m allergic to insects. Pretty much all of them. If I get bit or stung I swell up and ooze pus for a week. I was that kid that almost died from a mosquito bite on his neck when he was Continue reading Walking sticks aren t very cool unless they ve got a sword or a blowgun hidden in them. Fortunately, Mother Nature provided us with her own vision of walkingsticks, insects capable of ejecting a noxious chemical spray with astonishing accuracy, blinding its victims. Now that s cool. Anisomorpha buprestoides is the common walkingstick native to the southeastern United Continue reading My mother warned me about the pretty ones. I m fairly certain she was talking about girls, and I m positive I didn t listen to her, seeing how I married a pretty one. If I were to pass along the same advice to my three girls I d be talking about plants instead of girls. Not like they Continue reading I like things to be self-explanatory, like Death Camas with a name like that, you re fairly certain what you re going to get. But a plant named Tutu? I don t blame you if the first thing you think of is a troupe of ballet dancers, but if you re interested in poisons, know that it s a Continue reading Saltwater algal blooms can give rise to harmful toxins that accumulate in filter-feeding mollusks, like mussels, clams, and oyster. While these toxins may be harmless to our shellfish friends, they can be particularly harmful, even deadly, to the humans that eat them. It s taken a while, but we re finally at the last installment of shellfish Continue reading Last week I told the tale of a German forager who mistook Gentiana lutea with Veratrum album gentian root for white hellbore with some not so pleasant effects. In describing the pharmacology and toxicology of the two plant species I briefly mentioned that the medicinally useful gentian root is used in the production of the soft Continue reading People forage for wild foods, we ve been doing it for tens of thousands of years, but it s become a lost art. It s easy to see why: we have supermarkets on every corner and if you don t want to leave the house Uber can deliver meals to you. For people that still partake in foraging, either Continue reading People that do postmortem work see and hear a lot of weird stuff. The myriad ways people try to harm themselves or others is truly impressive at times. We also get a lot of someone done them in calls when a loved one dies, presumably because they watched CSI the night before we call Continue reading Give me a sign, any sign, that winter is over. Here in North Carolina, that sign is Sanguinaria canadensis, commonly known by the sinister-sounding name Bloodroot. As soon as we get a bit of warm weather, in late February or early march, Bloodroot emerges and graces us with magnificent blooms of dainty white flowers. It is Continue reading At it s core, postmortem work is morbid, and being surrounded by death every day makes its practitioners a bit odd. Or maybe we were weird from the get go. Regardless, one of our pastimes is discussing how we would kill ourselves*, i.e. the best way to go. Morbid, I know. Most of us favor carbon monoxide, Continue reading People learn in different ways. Some learn by reading, others by observation, and then there are people like me that just need to pee on the electric fence themselves.* * I don t know who said this. It s been attributed to Will Rogers, but his estate and museum say it s not from him. Where am I Continue reading It s been a while since I ve posted, and for that I apologize. Life and stuff, you know? I stopped to focus on my career. Needless to say, that bit me in the ass. As my colleagues delicately put it, I got f***ed. But hey, it happens. That s life, right? What hurt the most though, is Continue reading I love a good mystery, most scientists do. Whether it s JFK being killed by a poison arrow or secret CIA Cold War poisons, I m all in. And for me, the older the better. When I m searching for poisons I like to start with the oldest references, which for me are usually in the mid to late Continue reading It s a safe bet that all of us, at one time or another, has had the hiccups involuntary contractions of the diaphragm that suddenly shuts the opening between the vocal cords, making the classic hiccup sound and causing mini-convulsions. Lovely, aren t they? There are 1,001 cures for the hiccups: drinking water upside down, drinking Continue reading

TAGS:Nature is Natures 

<<< Thank you for your visit >>>

Nature is out to get us

Hot Websites