Dumb And Very Esoteric Chemiball Comic About The Mechanism Of Organic Mercury Poisoning

Dumb and very esoteric chemiball comic about the mechanism of organic mercury poisoning

Selenium (Se) is a necessary micronutrient. It’s involved in the amino acid selenocysteine (Sec), which is like cysteine (Cys) but instead of sulfur, it’s selenium. Selenocysteine is involved in selenoenzymes, which are important antioxidants.

Oxidants are highly reactive oxygen radicals that are sometimes accidentally made by the mitochondria. They really like to oxidize and destroy things like proteins, fats, and DNA. As it turns out, we need those things to not be destroyed.

Antioxidants are important because they’re useless and don’t do anything important other than be tempting targets for oxidants. They take the hit so you don’t have to. (though knowing biochemistry, I’m sure that most of them actually do everything, because it would just make too much sense otherwise.)

Organic mercury poisoning is bad because it permanently inhibits your selenoenzymes. This leaves the cell vulnerable to oxidation which is particularly bad for your brain cells.

In this case, methyl mercury (Hg-CH3) has previously bonded to the sulfur in Cysteineball and has now come near the selenocysteine ball.

Fun fact: the covalent binding affinities between mercury and selenium are about A MILLION times greater than with sulfur. I’m not exaggerating, it’s literally cited as ONE MILLION TIMES GREATER. So yeah, Mercuryblob immediately jumps to seleniumball and basically never lets go.

Sources: Ralston, N. & Azenkeng, Alexander & Raymond, Laura. (2012). Mercury-Dependent Inhibition of Selenoenzymes and Mercury Toxicity. 10.1007/978-1-4614-2383-6_5. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278702735_Mercury-Dependent_Inhibition_of_Selenoenzymes_and_Mercury_Toxicity

Ralston NVC, Raymond LJ. Mercury’s neurotoxicity is characterized by its disruption of selenium biochemistry. Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj. 2018 Nov;1862(11):2405-2416. doi: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2018.05.009. Epub 2018 May 9. PMID: 29753115.

Meet the Chemiballs; Earthbreaking Alkaline Earth Metals

The Alkaline Earth Metals are a bit like a diet version of the alkali metals. Unlike the alkali metals who have one valence electron that they really want to get rid of, alkaline earth metals have two that they sorta dislike having. They’re still very energetically reactive, often bursting into flames during chemical reactions. But they’re less likely to outright explode as sodiumball or potassiumball are. 

Ravings of a Mad Scientist

Meet the Chemiballs; Earthbreaking Alkaline Earth Metals

Meet the Chemiballs; Earthbreaking Alkaline Earth Metals The Alkaline Earth Metals are a bit like a diet version of the alkali metals. So it

Here's an old article with informative information about Alkaline Earth Metal balls but that's also meant to be funny i guess

Meet the Chemiballs; the Explosive Alkali Metals!

The alkali metals are the first group on the periodic table. Their whole thing is; they have some valence electrons, but would rather that not be the case. So they really like to pair up with electronegative elements, like oxygenball, who can take their electrons. Thus allowing the alkali metals to dissolve into solution as cute cation cats (deadbead dads).

Ravings of a Mad Scientist

Meet the Chemiballs; the Explosive Alkali Metals!

Get ready for some s p i c y e l e m e n t s. The fun stuff, that EXPLODES. Sodium, POTASSIUM. Want to know how a BANANA can KILL YOU?

A old funny blog article with more EDUTAINING POWER regarding alkalimetalballs.

Meet the Chemiballs: Some* of the Transition Metals

More Chemiballs! This time we’re looking at the Transition Metals. The Transition Metals are that flat bit in the middle of the periodic table. It’s defined as being all the elements that have a “d” orbital as their valence shell, which I’m sure there’s a very immature joke to be made of. But I’m far too mature and adult to stoop that low. (hehe, Transition metals)

* bruh look, im not gonna draw all the transition metals. have you SEEN a periodic table recently? do you have any idea how many transition metals there are? like, 34 or something. and 90% of them would just be varying shades of gray. i just drew a few cool ones

here's an article I wrote years ago about the transition metals (where the art is from)

Omg I love him!!!

Planariannnnn

This was a Patreon Request

Look at how smol and cute, littol bal

That's because ur scaring him!!! Pillbwugs do air raid drills when they think your on a giant bombing run!!! 😤

GIRLS!!!!!! gather roung. we are looking at this pillbug