Darwin meets PC gold-stripping alchemist, Darwin wins

Posted Apr 4th 2008 5:56AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Death isn't funny, but it's often absurd. A man in Tulsa accidentally poisoned himself while using mercury to "extract gold from computer parts." See, mercury can be used to dissolve gold from discarded PC boards. You then heat the runoff to evaporate the mercury. Guess what though, inhaling mercury is extremely toxic. So much so that the man is now dead and his residence must be gutted before its livable again. Look we know the value of the dollar ain't what it used to be, but you'll need a ton (literally) of old system boards to extract a single ounce of gold. Should you, however, stumble upon the Philosopher's Stone in your quest -- well, immortality solved.