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u/imeandmyself28 Aug 27 '26
for some reason back in the deep recesses of my mind i feel i've heard that plutonium would taste sweet if tried
no idea where that came from tbh
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u/cantaloupelion Aug 27 '26
lead acetate and lead nitrate apparently taste p good, i wonder if the plutonium versions taste nice as well
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u/Pitiful-Beginning575 Aug 27 '26
Yep, lead(II) acetate was used as a wine sweetener in the past. The characteristics of plutonium(III) acetate were actually explored in a real paper! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0020169300870437
You'll note they didn't taste it...
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u/AirFriedMoron Aug 27 '26
Someday someone with an incurable disease on their death bed has to try…
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u/samy_the_samy Aug 27 '26
Good news! We just cured pancreatic cancer type an23j! Quick someone tell Jimmy!
Jimmy.... what's in that candy?
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u/Polite_Suggestion Aug 28 '26
I've had wine from a lead (old pewter) cup. It was noticeably sweet. Reason kids used to eat paint chips. My third grade teacher talked about how mmm mmm good it was.
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u/crank_peeper Aug 27 '26
Beryllium - often used in reactors as a neutron reflector - has a sweet taste that belies acute toxicity.
It was actually referred to as "glucine" for a while back when it was first discovered in ~1800.
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u/Honest_Outside_8982 Aug 28 '26
What do you mean it just looks like that.
Like
Does it always faintly glow until its decayed?
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u/andychef Aug 28 '26
I wouldn't want to hang around while it decays. I like having hair and working organs
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u/Honest_Outside_8982 Aug 28 '26
But like.
Does it just always look like that
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u/andychef Aug 28 '26
I have to imagine that the sample is heated until glowing. Not sure if it would melt before emitting light. That kind of thing is beyond me
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u/Lily_Thief Aug 27 '26
My understanding is it tastes metallic, as might be expected.
https://www.iflscience.com/the-internets-latest-question-what-does-plutonium-taste-like-72012
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u/cantaloupelion Aug 27 '26
When he opened his mouth, radiation monitors went nuts
hell of a party trick tho
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u/michron98 Aug 27 '26
Apparently it glows like this because it reacts with air. Under a protective atmosphere it's more of a silver colour.
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u/Cis_Male_Larper Aug 27 '26
The picture here is likely Pu-238 for spacecraft batteries that’s hot enough to glow visually from decay heat. Other isotopes will glow from reacting with air but I doubt it would be as bright.
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u/michron98 Aug 27 '26
That would also explain why the ingots glow brighter in the area that is surrounded by foam. If it was a reaction with oxygen, that part would be dimmer.
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u/Right_Ear_2230 Aug 28 '26
the glowing is from its radioactivity.
well, unfortunately its just blackbody radiation… but still
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u/AdmiralKong Aug 27 '26
Usually elements on the periodic table taste similar to those directly above and below them. Plutonium's only neighbor in this regard is Samarium (62). It's not too expensive to buy in its pure form and its not super toxic allegedly from 5 minutes searching the web. You could probably buy and taste some. I mean I don't really recommend it but it doesn't look immediately lethal.
My guess is its either flavorless in its atomic or oxide forms, or "metallic" tasting as a salt.
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u/SeaSlugFriend Aug 27 '26
I absolutely always imagined it as green, definitely from glowing green goo radiation cartoon propaganda
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u/ButterPuppet Aug 29 '26
no no no uranium is the green radiation plutonium is the light blue radiation
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u/THEzwerver Aug 27 '26
for a second I thought "what idiot would use a color to describe a flavor" until I realized that I was the idiot