John Emsley > Quotes

“you cannot kill yourself by taking a large dose of sodium chloride (it will only make you vomit) or by injecting a solution of it. On the other hand, if you injected a solution of potassium chloride it will kill you within minutes by upsetting the rhythm of your heart.”
― John Emsley, Molecules at an Exhibition: Portraits of Intriguing Materials in Everyday Life

“This minimum, the so-called critical mass, turned out to be a surprisingly small 4 kg, about the size of an apple.”
― John Emsley, Molecules at an Exhibition: Portraits of Intriguing Materials in Everyday Life

“Coca-Cola is just a concoction of chemicals; garlic wards off heart disease and cancer; an aspirin a day keeps the doctor away. None of these statements is true, but they contain a germ of truth.”
― John Emsley, Molecules at an Exhibition: Portraits of Intriguing Materials in Everyday Life

“This does not mean that eating potassium chloride in place of sodium chloride, in a low-salt formulation, is risky—it isn’t. We need much more potassium chloride in our diet than sodium chloride, but normally we get all we need in the food we eat.”
― John Emsley, Molecules at an Exhibition: Portraits of Intriguing Materials in Everyday Life

“Condemned men who agree to donate their organs for transplants may be executed by being given what is described as a non-toxic lethal injection of potassium chloride. This chemical kills, but, unlike poison gas or the electric chair, it leaves all the organs undamaged. The”
― John Emsley, Molecules at an Exhibition: Portraits of Intriguing Materials in Everyday Life