this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] Sphks@jlai.lu 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Most of atoms can't be find as a pure form (metal/crystal or pair). You may have licked magnesium oxyde (MgO), but not magnesium as an explosive metal.

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Ah, I see I've fallen for the classic ambiguity - I was assuming the vast chemistry arena we were licking things in was not a frictionless vacuum. Yes, it's hypothetically pyrophoric with water; though it would require some prodegious amounts of slobber (or some small amount of effort) to produce that effect just by licking it - and I'm not entirely sure how well human salivary glands operate under vacuum conditions....

[–] Liz@midwest.social 2 points 1 week ago

Yeah I guess that's true, your salvia probably isn't penetrating the oxide layer with enough vigor to be too much of a concern. Don't eat it though!

https://youtube.com/shorts/Kk9rderPRnE