From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Thu Apr 10 2003 - 12:05:26 MDT
On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Anders Sandberg wrote:
> Hmm, Iron(III)-hexacyanoferrate(II). Despite containing cyanide
> ions, it is not very toxic. There is an amusing little story
> related to this in Michael Swanwicks "Periodic Table of Science
> Fiction": http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/elements/thallium.html
Hmmm, Anders, this story doesn't make any sense. (I'd like to see
the actual chemical formula(s) for the contents of Prussian Blue).
It just doesn't make sense that something containing iron and
ferrate (also containing iron) would function to reduce potential
radiation damage because iron normally functions a pro-oxidant
that leads to DNA damage. The only thing that I can speculate
on is that I think cyanide poisons hemoglobin, so if the cyanide
gets released it may reduce the amount of oxygen available to
the tissues and therefore reduce free radical damage.
But in the story, it says:
"Clearly something in the ink - she suspected the Prussian Blue -
had substituted potassium for thallium, allowing the latter to
be flushed from his system."
With the composition you cite above, this doesn't make any sense
at all -- it shouldn't have any effect on potassium/thallium
metabolism. Strangely enough, even though thallium is a
group 13 element (it should function like boron). It seems
to be able to form compounds as a group 1 (potassium) element
does. See: http://www.webelements.com/ for further info.
(Note: I haven't read some of the other URLs cited so I may
be missing something.)
Robert
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