The substance that kills at touch

Status
Not open for further replies.
Thanks Conium,

I believe the poison dart frogs are in fact what I seen.Now that you mentioned the beautiful coloring with these frogs,it jogged my memory on the colors.The bit about captive frogs was interesting,go figure.Thanks again.
 
Conium said:
There's a group of south american frogs called "poison dart frogs".
They "produce" extremely toxic and lipophilic toxins, so skin contact might be lethal.
I put "produce" in brackets because it isn't clear how they get their poison, and captive frogs don't produce significant amounts of poison, so one of the major theories is that the frog gets the toxin from a dietary source, kinda like pufferfish.

Wikipedia has some stuff on poison dart frogs and their toxins, and some great pictures of the frogs. They sport really beautiful colors.
I was gonna link to the wiki articles on poison dart frogs and one of the groups most toxic species, the Golden posion frog (Phyllobates terribilis), but my post count isn't high enough.
Click to expand...

Here's the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_dart_frog
 
Eagle9 said:
In famous movie “The Jackal” (starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere) is one moment when the agent following The Jackal (Bruce Willis) touches manually the automobile covered with some mysterious substance (The Jackal sprayed this substance to the automobile’s surface) and almost immediately dies. I wonder, does such “killer” substance really exist? The substance that kills you at touch? I do not mean some acid, like Sulfuric acid that might actually kill you, however in case of this acid a lot of amount will be needed to burn your skin :) I mean the substance with little amount that will kill you when you just touch it ;)
Click to expand...
 
It's a movie, not reality. The Jackal (1997) was a poorly-reviewed update and remake of The Day of the Jackal (1973) which was based on a 1971 novel (fiction) of the same name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Jackal
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jackal/

The contact poison had apparently magical properties indicating the movie makers did not rely on reality to make it. If it was so potent a toxin and easily absorbed through the skin, why carry it around in an aerosol dispenser clearly contraindicated by the MSDS sheet? The movie spends no time on this illogic and indeed the central plot is about SHOOTING the target dead, not applying poison.
 
rpenner said:
It's a movie, not reality. The Jackal (1997) was a poorly-reviewed update and remake of The Day of the Jackal (1973) which was based on a 1971 novel (fiction) of the same name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Jackal
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jackal/

The contact poison had apparently magical properties indicating the movie makers did not rely on reality to make it. If it was so potent a toxin and easily absorbed through the skin, why carry it around in an aerosol dispenser clearly contraindicated by the MSDS sheet? The movie spends no time on this illogic and indeed the central plot is about SHOOTING the target dead, not applying poison.
Click to expand...
Aha. I read Forsyth's book and there no such silly idea in it. The whole point of the book is to be as plausible as possible, after all.

Trust a second-rate movie to miss the point and screw it up :rolleyes:.
 
ratnakhairnar said:
I want be product just touch in hand kill the human
Click to expand...

If Mods are reluctant to ban the member, then at least they should expunge this post content.

Its quite likely that some time in near or distant future some nerdy responds to this weird post and put up a formulation which could really do such thing, and another nerdy actually attempts that after reading on this site. When caught this second nerdy may claim that he learnt about this formulation on so and so site.....site will have tremendous unwarranted traffic then and will get under surveillance.
 
He said there was stuff in there where one drop could kill the entire town
Click to expand...

How could anyone possibly produce such a poison safely? that would be suicide with just one slight, itty bitty mistake.

A droplet of VX that can barely be seen, (on the order of a mg or less iirc) will kill on contact.
Click to expand...

why would anyone produce such a thing? just because they can? one mistake and an entire population could be wiped out.

one drop kills on contact and one drop kills an entire town? that's crazy.

if this is true, we're all at risk, friend or foe alike, does not matter. if this exists, one day germ warfare will be real where it will make hiroshima and nagasaki look like child's play. mass extinction.
 
Last edited:
birch said:
How could anyone possibly produce such a poison safely? that would be suicide with just one slight, itty bitty mistake.

why would anyone produce such a thing? just because they can? one mistake and an entire population could be wiped out.

one drop kills on contact and one drop kills an entire town? that's crazy.
Click to expand...
The one thing that is oft missed in such alarming factoids is the small matter of delivery.

Yup. One drop of this stuff
- if divided into 5000 equal doses
- and then injected
- via hypodermic needle
- into waiting, willing citizens
could definitely kill 5000.

The list of substances for which this is true is nearly endless.

On the other hand, the list of things that
- could be delivered to 5000 people
- spread across 100 square miles
- where they would come into contact with it
- inside their homes and clothes
- and is lethal upon mere skin contact, or inhalation
- in a lethal dose
- before it naturally disperses
- and/or is rendered inert by exposure to air/sun/moisture/time
is very very small.

Most of these lethal substances you here about are virtually ineffective in an uncontrolled situation.
If they weren't, we'd have bio-chemical attacks as often as sunny days.

Delivery and dispersal method is at least as important a factor as toxicity when it comes to the danger of a substance. They don't seem to mention that in these alarmist factoids.
 
Well, sorry for necroposting, but I've googled this question, found this topic, and since this conversation continues well into 2017, let me insert my 2 cents.

Couldn't it be just an acid mixed with any of the highly lethal toxins (ricin, potassium cyanide, botulinum toxin, or any toxin that kills in a matter of seconds upon entering the blood stream) ?
If you could combine an acid with such a toxin, and maybe add some kind of stabilizer compound to prevent the acid decomposing the toxin.

The mechanism is simple - acid burns the skin and comes into contact with the capillaries under the epidermis, allowing the toxin to enter the bloodstream.
This explains why the victim in the movie took his hand away as if he was burned. Because he was!
 
And what does this acid do to the toxin its suspended in?

Weaponizing a toxin is not as simple as it often seems.
 
DaveC426913 said:
And what does this acid do to the toxin its suspended in?

Weaponizing a toxin is not as simple as it often seems.
Click to expand...

Well, acid doesn't react with anything it comes into contact with. I'm sure the scientists can figure out a way to add toxic substance to the acid without it being rendered harmless by the acid itself. And even put it inside aerosol spray coated with something anti-acidic from the inside. Partly for convenience of use, partly to conceal it.

I imagine that during shootout scenes Bruce Willis just runs around spraying this stuff into people's faces to save bullets, and it somehow seems funny to me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top