The Coronavirus Thread

[Brian Peacock]

Just nobody tell Trump it was Obama's idea, OK?

[rainbow]

I had to kind of tell my mum off for spraying bleach on her single-use face masks to sterilise them. She insisted that she hung them up to dry before using them again. I reminded her that chlorine is 'pretty toxic' stuff (it's actually phenomenally toxic) and the moisture from her breath could (would) reactivate it so she might (would) end up breathing it in a bit - which wasn't good for her general respiratory health. She just thought that it would 'kill the germs' like it says on the bottle and she could use it to make the masks go further. I told her to not worry about frittering away my inheritance on masks and then phoned my cousin who's going to 'just happen to have some extra masks and I thought you might like some just in case' for her.

The chlorine reacts with alpha-methyl ketones (a component of snot) to make chloroform.
http://www.chem.ucalgary.ca/courses/350 ... -3-2b.html

This probably gives yer mum a bit of a buzz. I wouldn't worry much beyond that...

[JimC]

[Brian Peacock]

Bloody chemists. Think they've got an answer for everything. Mixing stuff up and writing down if it goes blue isn't even a proper science.

[pErvinalia]

Poor man's physics.

[Tero]

well, it's actually NaOCl, so it's not Cl-Cl. But it does chlorinate everything. The "whitening" of bleach is reacting with colored substances. The products may stay stuck in the item being bleached.

[rainbow]

well, it's actually NaOCl, so it's not Cl-Cl.

Meh. Chlorine in water: Cl2 + H2O -> HCl + OCl-
OCl- + Na+ -> NaOCl

[Brian Peacock]

well, it's actually NaOCl, so it's not Cl-Cl. But it does chlorinate everything. The "whitening" of bleach is reacting with colored substances. The products may stay stuck in the item being bleached.

See what I mean pErvy? They're just obsessed with what colour it goes.

[rainbow]

Bloody chemists. Think they've got an answer for everything. Mixing stuff up and writing down if it goes blue isn't even a proper science.

Did I mention yet that mehylene blue destroys coronavirus?

[Brian Peacock]

[Tero]

I had a friend in grad school who was to pose for the cover of some grad school brochure, where a bunch of women posed on the cover, in science. The photographer asked her to heat something on a Bunsen burner. She heated water. "It's not colored!" She added a spoonful of permanganate to make it purple. He took the picture.

[JimC]

It's just potions without the pizzazz...

[Tero]

We're not getting anywhere.

[laklak]

Were on a goddamn ROLL here, folks, and Florduh is Numba Wun!

[Sean Hayden]

They are sending people back home to die here. I wonder how much of this is the result of our awkwardness around end-of-life care though, rather than overcrowding at the hospitals. It's sad either way.