Science Memes

10271 readers

2399 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
Keep it rooted (on topic).
No spam.
Infographics welcome, get schooled.

Research Committee

[email protected]

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

788

bioluminescence (mander.xyz)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

41 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

They had a whole sets of beauty products based on radium in the 20's of the past century. They had several peculiarities such as natural luminescence and a unique pale white colour that used to shine in the darkness. I needn't to say that this was obviously one of the most dangerous and damaging things you could apply to your body. tho-radia was a body lotion and a brand that took pride in using radium in many ways, including a product for teeth. Radioactive teeth, imagine that. I hope you don't come across one of those old bottles in an antique shop, as they are still dangerous.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

The 20's of last century.. Still not getting used to that

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

UV tattoo ink is one of the only inks that have been approved by the FDA (for animal use). They've been used for a long time in livestock. Not that that should make you comfortable with sticking it into your skin or anything, but it's probably not quite the same as powdering your face with radium.

While we're on the subject of historically misguided applications of radioactive materials: ever heard of uranium glass? People get real weird around spicy rocks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I forgot about uranium glass! That looks cool...too bad uranium is what it is. Anyway here's a radium dial or what remains of that: https://postimg.cc/WhWWY0Sc

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think the idea of radium wallpapers are awesome, and if I could get a safe variant to use in the basement as a guide to the fuse box it would be an instant buy

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The safest variant are tritium capsules, that contain a small amount of tritium of various colours, within a robust glass capsule. Tritium is one of those mildly radioactive compounds that can only emit up to alpha and beta rays, which are conveniently limited by the glass container. Radium emits a small amount of gamma rays, those can pierce through glass and iron. Now, phosphorus is the element that gave the name to the phosphorescence phoenomenon, so it is a relatively safe light-sensible coating that can have a small glow in the dark according to how much light it absorbed before, but in large amounts it isn't good. Marco lodola used neon astethics to make these sulptures that are basically made of light in a dark room:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=marco+lodola&form=HDRSC3&first=1 I've seen some of these firsthand, they're amazing, and rather large.

[–] threelonmusketeers 3 points 5 months ago

Tritium is one of those mildly radioactive compounds that can only emit up to alpha and beta rays

An alpha particle is a helium-4 nucleus. Tritium is smaller than that, so it can't undergo alpha decay. I think it just beta-decays into helium-3 by spitting out an electron from its nucleus.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

That's so cool:)