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http://xkcd.com/214/
Methyl tertiary-butile ether > NFPA 704 > Phosphine > Fumigation
> Methyl isocyanate
> Hydrogen cyanide
> Iodoform
> Chloripicrin
> Activated charcole > Strychnine > Anticonvulsant
Something is wrong with my brain. I always seem to end up looking at
deadly poisons, powerful explosives, dangerous natural phenomina,
powerful computer viruses, rare ways to die...
Phosphine is nice. It gets a 4-4-2 on the NFPA 704 chart. It's a gas
that's wickedly poisonous, corrosive, highly flammable (*and* burns to
produce *another* poison), and just all-round nasty.
And then there's methyl isocyanate. It burns your eyes, skin and lungs
on contact. It's liquid at room temperature, but it rapidly gets hot if
you get it wet. It's also stupidly flammable. In a confined damp space
it'll probably explode. On top of that, it can react *with itself* if
catalysed by any of several commonly-ocurring metal impurities. Pretty
frickin' evil, right?
And that everybody's favourit, strychnine. It screws up nerve
conduction, causing dramatic muscle spasms, leading to a spectacular and
vivid death by suffocation. Weirdly, this one used to be used as a
medicine not so long ago... When I clicked the link, I instantly
recognised the molecule. It appears on the cover artwork of the
Prodigy's "Poison" single. (Unsurprisingly enough...)
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