
'Red mercury': why does this strange myth persist? - joosters
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-49641369
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chewxy
I heard red mercury is so powerful that one drop of it is able to send a
Vulcan science officer back in time to create an alternate universe

~~~
bostonpete
What about an ambassador?

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cartoonfoxes
While this one is urban legend, it's an interesting thought that there exist
real and similarly code-named or pseudonymous highly secret chemicals,
mechanisms and components which go into things like nuclear weapons. See:
FOGBANK.

 _" The material is classified. Its composition is classified. Its use in the
weapon is classified, and the process itself is classified."_

~~~
steve19
Maybe they too are fake/non-existant, a kind of honey pot to catch external
spy agencies or a way to distract them.

~~~
cartoonfoxes
It's thought to be an aerogel that serves as an interstage material for
suspending and transfering energy between the primary and secondary within a
nuclear warhead.

Apparently they forgot how to make it, and had to reverse-engineer the
original process. It's a neat story. See page 20 in
[https://www.lanl.gov/science/weapons_journal/wj_pubs/17nwj2_...](https://www.lanl.gov/science/weapons_journal/wj_pubs/17nwj2_09.pdf)

~~~
duskwuff
If true, this would be an interesting case of a revealing code name -- "fog
bank" is an apt description of the consistency of an aerogel.

~~~
FOGBANK
Probably because it demanded low priority secrecy, since it isn't particularly
dangerous, in and of itself.

Aerogels, having been invented in 1931, weren't directly secret, given that
they appeared in scientific publications.

Meanwhile, it seems that the existing physics package designs had been
optimized for a specific type of aerogel, and that the level of precision to
maximize yield accounted for impurities introduced by the specific technique
that had produced previous batches.

The nature of the secret seems to have been a gremlin, both incidental and
intrinsic to the design of the contraption. And yet not aerogel specifically.

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barking
I'd never heard of red mercury before reading this article. I don't think it's
a widely known myth.

~~~
bloak
I agree. However, I had heard of "red phosphorus", so the expression "red
mercury" sounded vaguely plausible to me.

I suppose that claiming that something is a "myth" is a bullshit excuse
journalists use for writing about something that is completely untrue, which
they are not normally supposed to do.

~~~
benj111
Well there are middle Eastern mediaeval writers talking about it, middle
eastern sheiks going to Egypt after it, and middle eastern terrorists trying
to buy it, so it may not be well known in the west, but is obviously _widely_
believed in certain circles.

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fxj
I first heard about red mercury in the novel "A Tall Tail" by Charles Stross.

[https://www.tor.com/2012/07/20/a-tall-
tail/](https://www.tor.com/2012/07/20/a-tall-tail/)

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dr_dshiv
The first emperor of China died from mercury poisoning, in his search for
eternal life. Red mercury (cinnabar) was used for writing on oracle bones.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang)
[2]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnabar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnabar)

~~~
C1sc0cat
And to this day you can measure in creased mercury levels out side his tomb -
there where rivers of mercury in side it according the legend

~~~
dr_dshiv
And, since the tomb itself has never been excavated -- the mercury rivers may
still be down there!

[https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/flowing-rivers-of-
me...](https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/flowing-rivers-of-
mercury/8122.article)

~~~
Ma8ee
Aren't those most likely dried out by now? Mmercury evaporates, although much
slower than water.

~~~
SketchySeaBeast
Wouldn't want to be the guy to open the door to the tomb full of mercury air.

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harimau777
I think they gloss over cinnabar too quickly. I don't have proof, but it seems
logical that it is the source of these myths. That seems especially likely
since the center of a person's Qi in traditional Chinese medicine is often
called the "Cinnabar Field" and cinnabar was used in Taoist alchemy that often
sought immortality.

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sshagent
I dont know why my mind thinks Mercury is red in colour. I know its not the
case but for some reason, my brain's first thought is its red in colour. Maybe
I've ingested some of this urban myth as a child or something.

~~~
quietbritishjim
Perhaps because mercury used to be used in thermometers, and the liquid now
used in its place is often coloured red (and still often referred to as
"mercury").

~~~
tempguy9999
Probably total coincidence. But happens when I was a kid I 'knew' thermometers
contained mercury, and it was clearly red. You only had to look.

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denton-scratch
What an awful article. You have to get to nearly the end before the author
admits that cinnabar, a long-known and common mercury ore, is an intense red
colour. Otherwise the article is all woo and hype.

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jacobush
I read somewhere about the US trying to leak fake intelligence that they
worked on some kind of military propulsion device. And leave just enough clues
that if someone tried this "at home", i.e. the Soviet Union, they would blow
themselves up. And this was nicknamed or alluded to be "Red Mercury".

Also see:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Glocke_(hoax)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Glocke_\(hoax\))
which maybe was where the inspiration for the story (true or false) came from.

~~~
ovi256
A Tall Tail by Charlie Stross.

[https://www.tor.com/2012/07/20/a-tall-
tail/](https://www.tor.com/2012/07/20/a-tall-tail/)

A great short story.

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roseway4
“Red Mercury” was also implicated in the downing of South African Airways
Flight 295 in 1987, with the loss of 159 passengers. The plane was rumored to
be freighting the substance from Taiwan to Johannesburg for use in the
Apartheid regime’s nuclear weapons program.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Airways_Flight_2...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Airways_Flight_295)

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Izkata
At first I thought this had something to do with the planet Mercury, but
reading the content it reminded me of one fictional object.

In the anime Fullmetal Alchemist, one form the philosopher's stone takes is a
red liquid:
[https://bigmemes.funnyjunk.com/comments/Looks+like+a+philoso...](https://bigmemes.funnyjunk.com/comments/Looks+like+a+philosophers+stone+_03c4b29025d07f373b3cbbfd0524acd0.jpg)

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benj111
So why do the sellers not sell 'red' Mercury sulfide? They aren't misselling
something then.

Perhaps it says something about the buyers? Perhaps they want to be misled? Or
have such low faith in science that something accepted by science becomes less
legitimate in their eyes? It appears to me that it's coming from the same
place as conspiracy theorists, which I suppose is what this basically is.

~~~
hansjorg
Because then they would be liable for mercury poisoning?

~~~
benj111
Only if you sell it for human consumption.

"Red Mercury: As used by the Ancient Egyptians to embalm their Kings"

Would probably get you the right demographic.

You do raise a good moral point though. Selling someone some red food
colouring is 'just' fraud, selling someone a toxic substance that kills them
may be further than the average fraudster is willing to go.

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kazinator
> _The hunt for red mercury_

Play on 1990 movie title:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_for_Red_October_(film...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_for_Red_October_\(film\))

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jimhefferon
No better way to make some people think it exists than by fervently denying
it.

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quickthrower2
I'm sticking with my snake oil.

