Re: chemistry sci-fi

In article <4835DF7C.D37DA941@xxxxxxxxx>, Mark Thorson <nospam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Bill Penrose wrote:

Even the great Asimov couldn't make chemistry interesting to a fiction
audience. The closest he got was an attempted murder by putting
glycerine on the threads of an oxygen cylinder. This was a method of
offing someone that even very few chemists had heard of.

Several authors have used thallium:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thallium#In_fiction

Though I think this would be a bad idea, because
the thallium would remain detectable in the corpse
upon exhumation, even after many years.

There's also a plot I remember in which beryllium was poisoning people,
although new technology had long ago replaced it with other materials. The
sleuth had to first diagnose beryllium poisoning because it hadn't happened in
a very long time, and then determine that the metal got into the person's
system because they were using very old tools(?).

My memory of the details is rather fuzzy, but I'm sure someone here will fill
in the correct items.
.