'Red mercury': why does this strange myth persist? | Hacker News Reader

'Red mercury': why does this strange myth persist?

bbc.co.uk

38 pointsjoosters41 comments

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

What about an ambassador?

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."

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

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_...

I seem to recall (from Dark Sun) that Ivy Mike used expanded polystyrene to fill/line the outer case of the weapon - it does seem that an aerogel would be a possible evolution of that.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Then it may be a good thing that this hoax has been made more well-known like this - expose it for what it is before it becomes a more mainstream scam or dangerous medicine like e.g. the current anti-vax campaign / essential oils trend.

It has been a plot device in several video games and films over the last few decades. There was an eponymous (and quite bad) movie made in 2005. Also Robert Ludlum used it in his novel The Prometheus Deception

So, it is not really that obscure either.

edit: I just found a New Scientist article from 1995 which seems to take the idea somewhat seriously.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14619750-300-cherry-r...

we used to widely use a red disinfectant that contains mercury around here in the nineties, so this being called a myth with all the weird mysticism behind had me even more confused

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merbromin

It's a McGuffin from the film RED 2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_2_(film)), among others, too.

All reporting I've seen indicates regional popularity of the myth - in Africa and the Middle East, specifically.

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/

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 [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnabar

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

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...

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

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

The volatility of mercury at a temperature of 20°C is 0.056 mg/h.cm². Would 10 million grams last 19,272,000 hours... We'd have to estimate the surface area... And then account for condensation in an enclosed area...

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.

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.

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").

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.

Maybe because of cinnabar

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnabar

My guess is because of a red disinfectant called merbromin which contains mercury, as LoSboccacc pointed out elsewhere in these comments.

When I was a kid, merbromin - under the trade name Mercurochrome - was a popular treatment for minor cuts.

It contains mercury, and "stains the skin a distinctive carmine red" (quoting Wikipedia), which can last for many days.

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.

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) which maybe was where the inspiration for the story (true or false) came from.

A Tall Tail by Charlie Stross.

https://www.tor.com/2012/07/20/a-tall-tail/

A great short story.

“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...

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...

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.

Because then they would be liable for mercury poisoning?

I don't think con artists really care?

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.

> The hunt for red mercury

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

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

I'm sticking with my snake oil.

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