At my job there this almond flavored coffee pods that when brewed smelled overwhelmingly almond-y. My cousin works in metal reclamation an they work with a LOT of cyanide, I tell him if he ever wants the day off, I’ll get him a pod, all he needs to do is spill that coffee and they’d shut down the entire floor to double check things.
(context if you’re lost is that cyanide smells a lot like almonds)
There’s a reason the life expectancy of chemists is roughly 10 years less than the rest of humanity. It does get skewed by all the people who did moronic stuff like cleaning tables with benzene, but that’s not the only reason.
I was a refrigeration tech in a place that made high end refrigeration equipment. Fun fact, when some refrigerants get too hot, they break down into hydrogen flouride which forms hydroflouric acid when it comes in contact with water, such as the water in your respriatory tract. Acids taste and smell sour. Being that I normally worked with brand new equipment, I had never dealt with burned refrigerant before. This resulted in me wondering why the hell the refrigerant in an RMA machine had a sour smell when purged the lines on my manifold. Like the dumbass I am I wound up smelling a fair bit of that refrigerant trying to identify why it smelled sour before it finally occured to me that I had been practically snorting hydrogen flouride. One hospital trip, a few chest xrays, and an ECG later I wound up being fine. The next day I came back to work to find that my smartass boss had put a bag of sour candy on my desk.
There are lots of wild foods that are poisonous, but that didn’t stop our ancestors from figuring out ways to make them edible. In the case of bitter almonds I can find a reference to baking and boiling being effective methods of reducing cyanide content. Cold leaching might also work but it would take a lot more time.
I have to imagine that dire necessity was a catalyst for these discoveries. I’m guessing the thought process was more like “These are bitter as shit and they killed Bill, but we’re gonna starve to death if we don’t find some food, so let me try boiling these to see if the bitter goes away.”
NileRed did a video on how it smells ‘chemically’ and nothing like almonds. In the US you can buy cyanide without restrictions due to how easy it comes up on toxicology tests so if you have the money, buy it and smell it yourself. He also tasted it too.
My MSDS says oral LD50 for cyanide is 4mg/kg in rats. So, for an 80kg thats roughly 6 drops of pure cyanide. You can’t really buy pure cyanide, but you can get calcium or potassium cyanide. But I’m not very sure if i’m willing to risk about 1/10th of a lethal dose our of curiosity…
At my job there this almond flavored coffee pods that when brewed smelled overwhelmingly almond-y. My cousin works in metal reclamation an they work with a LOT of cyanide, I tell him if he ever wants the day off, I’ll get him a pod, all he needs to do is spill that coffee and they’d shut down the entire floor to double check things.
(context if you’re lost is that cyanide smells a lot like almonds)
[21:55] on this from NileRed
Nile has basically killed his sense of smell from years of smelling chemicals he’s made. Don’t trust his nose for anything lol
There’s a reason the life expectancy of chemists is roughly 10 years less than the rest of humanity. It does get skewed by all the people who did moronic stuff like cleaning tables with benzene, but that’s not the only reason.
I was a refrigeration tech in a place that made high end refrigeration equipment. Fun fact, when some refrigerants get too hot, they break down into hydrogen flouride which forms hydroflouric acid when it comes in contact with water, such as the water in your respriatory tract. Acids taste and smell sour. Being that I normally worked with brand new equipment, I had never dealt with burned refrigerant before. This resulted in me wondering why the hell the refrigerant in an RMA machine had a sour smell when purged the lines on my manifold. Like the dumbass I am I wound up smelling a fair bit of that refrigerant trying to identify why it smelled sour before it finally occured to me that I had been practically snorting hydrogen flouride. One hospital trip, a few chest xrays, and an ECG later I wound up being fine. The next day I came back to work to find that my smartass boss had put a bag of sour candy on my desk.
Fun fact, wild almonds have lethal amounts of cyanide, it’s only through selective breeding that we can eat them
Okay, but why not just breed the almonds? /j
Who the hell thought, “OK, so it killed Bill, but I think there’s something here. We just need to keep trying.”
Because almonds are tasty as fuck. As long as someone else is testing the new strains that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.
I don’t really think almonds taste good imo. They’re pretty bland to me.
The nuts are bunk, but the extract is where it’s at!
I’m not a big fan of almonds by themselves, but I love almond butter, almond milk, and roasted almonds.
You are entitled to your own opinion irrespectivly of how wrong it is.
fair enough haha
Also, everything gets taste tested during a for real famine.
I imagine wild almonds probably taste like burning
There are lots of wild foods that are poisonous, but that didn’t stop our ancestors from figuring out ways to make them edible. In the case of bitter almonds I can find a reference to baking and boiling being effective methods of reducing cyanide content. Cold leaching might also work but it would take a lot more time.
I have to imagine that dire necessity was a catalyst for these discoveries. I’m guessing the thought process was more like “These are bitter as shit and they killed Bill, but we’re gonna starve to death if we don’t find some food, so let me try boiling these to see if the bitter goes away.”
Additionally, cyanide toxicity is mostly something that happens over time. Unproccesed Cassava will kill you, but not after the first meal.
Boiling also works to make acorns
edibleconsumableless lethal. They still taste kinda bad though.NileRed did a video on how it smells ‘chemically’ and nothing like almonds. In the US you can buy cyanide without restrictions due to how easy it comes up on toxicology tests so if you have the money, buy it and smell it yourself. He also tasted it too.
My MSDS says oral LD50 for cyanide is 4mg/kg in rats. So, for an 80kg thats roughly 6 drops of pure cyanide. You can’t really buy pure cyanide, but you can get calcium or potassium cyanide. But I’m not very sure if i’m willing to risk about 1/10th of a lethal dose our of curiosity…