competent cells again!!

[Richard P. Grant]

In article <6l4qb0$8rj at mserv1.dl.ac.uk>, wgschech at med.uni-tuebingen.de wrote:
: Your aldehyde theory sounds reasonable. Have you ever put your nose 
: into a bottle of autoclaved glycerol? Probably some glycerol cleaves 
: off water and turns into acrolein (a toxic lachrymator when 
: exposed to in higher concentrations). At least it smells alike.
: 

Wa-ay off topic, but this reminds me of an "A"-level chemistry practical
(I guess that's high school equivalent - 16 - 18 y.o.).  Take glycerol,
reflux with Mg carbonate (I think).  After about 15 minutes, I was the
first to get a yield.  Cautious sniff, WHOOF!  Staggered back against the
bench.  Next lad got a yield, he was on the floor.  "lachrymator"?  Yeah,
and the rest.  Can't remember the LD50 but something fairly scary.

Chemistry is bad for your health.

;-)

Richard

-- 
Richard P. Grant MA DPhil  | rgrant at  cmtech.co.uk
Senior R&D Scientist       | work: http://www.cmtech.co.uk/
Cambridge Molecular        | home: http://www.avnet.co.uk/adastra
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