The word ’sardonic’ has its roots in the name Sardinia, because a plant commonly found on the island was used in potions which gave corpses a grimace after death.
Researchers have established that chemical compounds in the plant, tubular water-dropwort, cause muscles in the face to contract, producing a strange rictus grin.
“Our discovery supports what many [...]
Posts Tagged ‘toxicology’
3 Jun
Sardonic grin – mystery solved?
22 Jan
Lead and the decline of Empire
Lead is useful, surprising, unpredictable, dangerous – and deadly. Previous generations found it to be an essential part of civilized living: pipes, pewter, pottery, paints, and even potions were made with it.
The Roman architect and engineer Marcus Vitruvius, who lived in the first century AD, observed that labourers in lead smelters always had pale complexions. [...]
17 Jan
“A poison in a small dose is a medicine, and a medicine in a large dose is a poison.”
Humans appear to have been exposed to arsenic for more than 5000 years and we know this because hair from the Iceman, who was preserved in a glacier in the mountains of the Italian Alps for this length of time, contained high levels of the element. His exposure to arsenic is thought to indicate [...]
