01-20-2005, 10:46 PM
In the early 1990s, a scientific model for spinal-cord injury was created. It is composed of taking an animal, normally a rat, and laying it on its belly. The back is shaved, and a laminectomy is performed. Basically, this is a procedure where the bone from a short length of the back of the spine is removed, exposing the spinal cord. Then, a 10-gram rod is suspended above the spinal cord at a height of either 12.5, 25, or 50 millimeters and it is then dropped.
This drop results in a contusion on the rat's spinal column resulting in paralyzed muscles and blocked sensations. The location and severity of the damage depends on the site of the block and the height of the drop, resulting in the behaviorial changes being reproducable.
Hydrogen Fluoride (or Hydrofluoric acid) is quite dangerous because it doesn't burn or feel painful in any way when you first get it on your skin, thus making people prone to ignore it and not bother washing it off. But after a certain period of time it soaks down into the skin and leaves disgusting, horrible, disfiguring, and (I think) eventually very painful acid burns.
[size=9]Posted 21 Jan 2005 01:48 am:
A Hummingbird is lighter than a penny.
This drop results in a contusion on the rat's spinal column resulting in paralyzed muscles and blocked sensations. The location and severity of the damage depends on the site of the block and the height of the drop, resulting in the behaviorial changes being reproducable.
Hydrogen Fluoride (or Hydrofluoric acid) is quite dangerous because it doesn't burn or feel painful in any way when you first get it on your skin, thus making people prone to ignore it and not bother washing it off. But after a certain period of time it soaks down into the skin and leaves disgusting, horrible, disfiguring, and (I think) eventually very painful acid burns.
[size=9]Posted 21 Jan 2005 01:48 am:
A Hummingbird is lighter than a penny.