RE to Jim 3975 - Strong contamination with ethidium bromide

[Dr Engelbert Buxbaum]

Am 11.06.2007, 14:15 Uhr, schrieb ChenHA <hzhen from freeuk.com>:


> The accused got away scot free.  Nothing was proved of course.  I do
> wonder however why we don't actually see more of this kinds of cases,
> since we have access to all kinds of poisons in the lab, and we all
> know of the liaisons, passions, conflicts, arguments  and hurt that go
> on in labs.

Some years ago a couple of mCi of 32P ended up in a departmental coffee  
urn somewhere. Created some stirr in the media, too. Fortunately, there is  
a big gap between thinking somebody is "a most tiresome fellow" and  
actually killing them.

I do remember a case in Germany though where a highschool science teacher  
killed his wife by lacing her jam with a strongly carcinogenic chemical  
that was not publically identified. Even used school funds to pay for the  
stuff. The issue came up only because his wife thought it strange how he  
urged her to eat from that particular jam. But by that time it was too  
late. Can you imagine giving witness testimony in the trial of your own  
murderer?