I can’t understand how a small grain, a speck of toxin can kill a grown adult?
If this has been asked before please redirect me to the post.
In: Biology
for example, many viruses are not organisms, just a protein finding itself a hosting cell so it can regenerate.
other toxins, like cyanide, just disable curtain essential functions. cyanide bonds to hemoglobin (a protein which bonds to oxygen and carries it to the cells. btw it turns red when it bonds to oxygen, which is why you turn blue when suffocating), stopping it from transporting oxygen to the cells, causing a very slow and painful death
The botulism toxin can do this because it’s an enzyme – it cleaves a critical neurotransmitter protein in half, then resets to do it again.
And again
And again
A single molecule can keep dicing up protein and disabling a neuron for hours before it finally degrades.
In that time, you’ve been unable to breathe because the signal pathway is all locked up.
Compare that to a poison molecule like carbon monoxide that disables a single protein and is then permanently expended.
Well, it does depend on what kind of poison it is, but for example a poison could send a specific signal to stop your heart. It just needs to “press on the button” and it’s done. It won’t do it itself.
Nerotoxins “eat” brain cells. So obviously, even a little bit can do a lot of damage. And nothing is gonna stop it.
There’s also strongly radioactive components that will just make your cells degenerate. They hold a lot of energy, so that’s why.
There is a bunch of other ways to kill people, I’ll let you read the other comments 🙂
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