Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Crying statues and other sneaky scientific magic?

itsafineday - 15-2-2019 at 06:57

My chem karate is wannabe grade and I can think of at least a couple ways to make crying statues. It is amazing just how much influence a dab of dessicant in the right place can have.

Do any of you know about other instances where a little chem knowledge was used so deviously?

VSEPR_VOID - 15-2-2019 at 17:32

I can think of a few,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapons_in_World_War_...

itsafineday - 16-2-2019 at 04:06

I meant devious. Chemical warfare was obvious. Even chimps throw crap at each other.

St. Januarius' blood seems to be another religious instance.
[Edited on 16-2-2019 by itsafineday]

[Edited on 16-2-2019 by itsafineday]

fusso - 16-2-2019 at 05:40

Does Pharaoh serpent (Hg(SCN)2 thermolysis) count?

Sulaiman - 16-2-2019 at 06:32

I have seen a marketplace bomoh/shamen/mystic/healer.... suck a tumour out of a person and spit out blood without breaking the victims skin,
after rinsing a KMnO4 loaded mouth with a glass of water :P

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

fusso - 16-2-2019 at 06:42

Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman  
I have seen a marketplace bomoh/shamen/mystic/healer.... suck a tumour out of a person and spit out blood without breaking the victims skin,
after rinsing a KMnO4 loaded mouth with a glass of water :P

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
How you know it's KMnO4?

Swinfi2 - 16-2-2019 at 09:50

I think a good one would be to make flash paper, like flash cotton. Nitrate the paper, make sure its stable and neutralised, write notes to friends, attach the snap from a xmas cracker. Pull the cord and the note is gone, just watch your fingers. (probably a little advanced)

Or use an indicator as an ink, say Phenolphthalein as it is sometimes colourless but i bet there are better choices, then expose to ammonia to reveal.

Sulaiman - 16-2-2019 at 11:00

Quote: Originally posted by fusso  
Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman  
I have seen a marketplace bomoh/shamen/mystic/healer.... suck a tumour out of a person and spit out blood without breaking the victims skin,
after rinsing a KMnO4 loaded mouth with a glass of water :P

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
How you know it's KMnO4?


A) I recognised the colour
B) There was a clump of un-dissolved crystals where he spat

fusso - 16-2-2019 at 11:39

Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman  
Quote: Originally posted by fusso  
Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman  
I have seen a marketplace bomoh/shamen/mystic/healer.... suck a tumour out of a person and spit out blood without breaking the victims skin,
after rinsing a KMnO4 loaded mouth with a glass of water :P

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
How you know it's KMnO4?


A) I recognised the colour
B) There was a clump of un-dissolved crystals where he spat
He should've used Fe(SCN)2+ instead:P

mayko - 18-2-2019 at 09:50

In one telling of his escape, John Dillinger broke out of jail by carving a fake gun out of a potato and then painting it with iodine tincture to turn it blue-black.

Pumukli - 5-4-2019 at 21:42

Iodine and starch helped a biochemist to escape from an ex Warsaw Pact country to France. She worked with amylases and they routinely used the iodine test in the lab. She went to a conference, met a prominent french biochemist, worked for him for a few months (legally) and decided Paris was the place for her. She came back to her country but kept exchanging snail mails with the professor. Part of the letters were written with regular ink, the more "frivolous" parts with starch-solution... In a year she and her husband were living in Paris - causing some stirr and stress in state security circles.

Ubya - 6-4-2019 at 03:44

Quote: Originally posted by itsafineday  

St. Januarius' blood seems to be another religious instance.


My analytic chemistry 1 professor talked about it. They made a convincing replica using a colloidal solution of iron idroxide with sodium and chlorine ions(probably just salt), this solution has thixotropic properties, aka if let still it is a dense gel, but if shaken a little (as with the inversion of the real ampoule "blood") it turns more fluid and runny.
To me it is a plausible explanation as this chemicals were easy to make even centuries ago when the miracle's tale had origin



[Edited on 6-4-2019 by Ubya]