121
votes
Accepted
Are spiders unable to hurt humans, especially very small spiders?
The answer is that spiders definitely can hurt you. While you may not be likely to be killed, spiders can absolutely hurt you, whether from a large one's bite (whether venomous or not) or from any ...
- 6,274
61
votes
Can venomous snakes be determined by these pupil, nostril and scale patterns?
No, this is not true. Not even for just India, as Indian cobra (Naja naja) has round pupils and subcaudal (tail) scales are divided. There is also no pit visible. It is venomous species of snake.
...
- 671
52
votes
Was Alexei Navalny poisoned in 2020 with Novichok nerve agents by Russia's Federal Security Service?
The poisoning incident is famous because the investigative journalism group Bellingcat identified the FSB (Russian spy service) members who followed Navalny and went into his Tomsk hotel room to apply ...
- 1,403
42
votes
Accepted
Is canthaxanthin used in salmon farming toxic to human health?
The claim is correct for:
Canthaxanthin is used as a colorant in foodstuff, particularly so in farmed salmon, but also eggs and poultry
Canthaxanthin does also occur naturally, in some fish, in tiny ...
- 44.1k
41
votes
Accepted
Was Alexei Navalny poisoned in 2020 with Novichok nerve agents by Russia's Federal Security Service?
TLDR (see conclusion below): Independent pieces of evidence from the Charité and laboratories in Sweden, Germany and France make the hypothesis that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok in 2020 ...
32
votes
Is honey toxic when heated up in tea?
Let me start off with my conclusion as a chemist...
I absolutely don't believe that heating honey in hot water would make the liquid indigestible or toxic.
The claim
The webpages cited by the OP,...
- 598
32
votes
Are spiders unable to hurt humans, especially very small spiders?
The claim
First let's start with noting that the goal of the episode was to get children over their irrational fear of spiders and making those children see the bigger picture.
Mummy says cobwebs ...
- 4,154
29
votes
Are spiders unable to hurt humans, especially very small spiders?
Are spiders unable to hurt people?
There are several species of spiders, some large, others not so large. that are quite capable of harming people. Some can cause severe injury to or kill people. ...
- 15.4k
26
votes
Can venomous snakes be determined by these pupil, nostril and scale patterns?
... maybe a bit more education hurts even less... but the answer is still no.
So to me the description with pits and slit pupils (and also the head drawing) looks like indicating pit vipers. I don't ...
- 3,556
22
votes
Can venomous snakes be determined by these pupil, nostril and scale patterns?
That is a diagram for identifying pit vipers. There are many, many venomous snakes in the world, including I believe all of the most deadly ones, that are not pit vipers.
The advice is particularly ...
- 1,608
15
votes
Accepted
Do dolphins intentionally intoxicate themselves with puffer-fish venom?
About Rob Pilley, the "zoologist and producer" who gave the Daily news their original quotes. A google scholar search does not turn up any research from him; none of the 120 papers by a R Pilley are ...
- 12k
14
votes
Is the European NO₂ limit of 40 µg/m³ for outside air backed by strong evidence?
Summary
The question as asked in the title depends on what you consider "strong evidence". I will therefore have a look at which side makes the better-sourced point. (Which is not just about "...
- 19.2k
12
votes
Accepted
Can defrosting vacuum-packed fish in its packaging cause botulism?
The point about botulinum toxin is that it grows best in anaerobic conditions. (Detection, Identification and Differentiation of Clostridia Species) This is typically associated with canning and other ...
- 5,344
11
votes
Accepted
Can you become immune to Snake Venom?
tl;dr: Yes.
This Mister Steve Ludwin is quite public about his snake adventures. The details about his method as reported in the popular press are a bit murky and so imprecise that they increase the ...
- 44.1k
11
votes
Accepted
Did a prisoner die from a needle prick when he was told that it was a snake bite?
There is a set of very old urban legends - fictional stories that are widely believed and passed around as true - which are closely related to this story.
In the book The Lore of Scotland: A Guide to ...
- 145k
7
votes
Accepted
Is the Japanese emperor forbidden from eating fugu (puffer fish)?
Formerly the emperors had to stay in their palace in Kyoto and did not have the chance to visit Shimonoseki, where most fugu is prepared. More concretely, fugu was illegal in Kyoto and Tokyo from ...
- 47.2k
7
votes
Accepted
Does eating burnt toast neutralize ingested poison?
Activated carbon is used to treat poisonings and overdoses following oral ingestion. Tablets or capsules of activated carbon are used in many countries as an over-the-counter drug to treat diarrhea, ...
- 7,144
5
votes
Accepted
Can regularly ingesting a poison build an immunity to it?
Mithridatism is an actual practice that is possible with biologically complex poisons that react with the immune systems. The mechanism is similar to that of developing immune resistance to a disease ...
- 6,568
5
votes
Are spiders unable to hurt humans, especially very small spiders?
They are dangerous/harmful in more places than Australia
United States
Brown Recluse
Necrotic venom often requiring medical attention
Black Widow
Female venom contains the neurotoxin latrotoxin.
...
- 167
5
votes
Do the seeds from 20 apples contain a fatal dose of cyanide?
No, that estimate is far too low (you'd need seeds of 1-2 orders of magnitude more apples)
The amygdalin contents of the apple seeds could gener-
ate between 0.06 and 0.2 mg cyanide equivalents ...
- 3,556
4
votes
Is drinking water stored in copper vessels (copperware) good for your health?
Copper in the water is not a problem. In fact, in moderation it is necessary for your health. In the United States, a lot of homes use copper plumbing. However, the concentration of copper can be an ...
- 1,741
3
votes
Are laundry detergent and fabric softener fumes dangerous to human health?
We don't know.
When deciding if fumes are dangerous, the relevant measure is the "LC-50", the airborne concentration that is lethal to 50% of test subjects. Ingestion LD-50s are of limited ...
- 3,060
2
votes
Are polyfluorinated chemicals linked to men's penises being smaller?
tl;dr
No direct evidence, yet. For causation, and correlational, observational studies. All are too often based on animal studies. But these preliminary and circumstantial evidence point largely to ...
- 44.1k
2
votes
Accepted
Are laundry detergent and fabric softener fumes dangerous to human health?
Not even close to dangerous enough to worry about
I looked up the Material Safety data Sheet (MSDS) for the OSHA (United States) for a generic fabric softener. The following table is the LD50 (lethal ...
- 678
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible