March 2, 2009

Chemistry in the ER


Find more videos like this on Chemistry in the ER

Somebody has set up a page of videos from ER episodes with clips that pertain to the chemistry used on the show.

Of particular interest to me is the video of a man dying of exposure to hydrofluoric acid. HF is the chemical that I frequently cite whenever one of my students asks what the most dangerous chemical is. It's probably not the most dangerous one in the world, but it's certainly the most dangerous one that they might ever come into contact with. It's used in glass etching, so it's available commerically, but it's nasty stuff.

Check this Discover article about a man exposed to a small amount of the stuff.

1 comment:

Katydid said...

I love ER - it isn't really a good show anymore but I still watch it, especially since it's in the last season and I can recognize some of the locations they film at.

I remember being really freaked out by that episode, scary stuff.