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Scenes from Miyakejima can look downright post-apocalyptic. Each resident on the tiny Japanese island is required to carry a gas mask, just in case they need to quickly pull it on. But why? More »
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Got a hankering for some rhinoceros horn? Practitioners of traditional Asian medicine believe that ground rhino horns, when ingested, can help cure diseases like cancer. Unfortunately for patients consuming rhino horns, they could just as well be chewing on their fingernails. Unfortunately for the rhinos, the increased demand for their horns in recent years has sent the rate of poaching in places like South Africa skyrocketing. More »
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In Dunn County, North Dakota, the roads can kill you. In fact, anything you do to disturb rocks in the area, like driving or even sweeping, can kick up naturally-occurring particles that lodge in your body and give you a rare kind of lung cancer up to 30 years later. Dunn County, you see, is home to a lot of rocks containing erionite, an asbestos-like substance that's highly toxic. Unfortunately, nobody knew that until very recently. And so at least 300 miles of roads in North Dakota are paved with the stuff. More »
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Certain butterfly species are poisonous, providing a deadly defense against predators. Over time, different butterfly species have evolved the same color patterns, basically telling predators to avoid all butterflies of that appearance. This is the mystery of convergent evolution. More »
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For anyone who has to deal with rodent infestations, getting rid of the small, gnawing animals can be rough — so much so that many people immediately head for poison. However, it's not quite as easy as that. Some mice have obtained immunity to Warfarin, a common rodent poison, via a very unusual route: horizontal gene transfer. More »
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As someone who has never had botulinim toxin injected in my face as a way to prevent wrinkles, it never occurred to me that different strains of the toxin might have different levels of effectiveness. Yet enterprising researchers from San Francisco have studied these poisons extensively, pitting two types against each other in new research published in The Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery. More »
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We assume that snakes kill with venom shot through their fangs, injection style. In fact, most snakes leak poison very slowly. Oddly this technique works quite well, and you can figure out why by considering the physics of ketchup in a bottle. More »
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The platypus is Earth's weirdest creature - famously, 19th century biologists thought it was a hoax when first shown one - and its venom is a hodgepodge too, containing toxins borrowed from snakes, spiders, and even starfish. More »
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James Lewis was accused of putting cyanide into Tylenol capsules back in 1982, causing several deaths. His involvement has never been proved, but now he's self-published a new science-fiction novel called Poison!, which is making people wonder anew. More »
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You can read the short story that's sparking a new debate about the future of African science fiction for free online. "Poison" by Henrietta Rose-Innes won the 2008 Caine Prize for African writing. It's a harrowing story of a woman fleeing a disaster in Cape Town, pursued by the threat of destructive chemical rain, and the Guardian has posted the whole thing on its site. More »
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Now you can reverse the effects of cyanide poisoning with just one pill that takes effect in less than three minutes. It can also make you impervious to the effects of cyanide if you take it less than an hour before being exposed to the deadly poison that's a favorite of terrorists and death camp counselors. Discovered by retired University of Minnesota prof Herbert Nagasawa, the antidote is now being developed as a drug. It uses the body's natural defenses against cyanide to turn people into poison-repelling superheroes. More »
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