Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Fish Poison Makes Hot Feel Cold and Vice Versa

Posted by kdawson on from the rhymes-with-fugu dept.

SoyChemist writes "Ciguatoxin causes bizarre neurological symptoms including temperature reversal, a burning sensation, and an imaginary feeling of loose teeth. It is produced by algae and accumulates in the fatty flesh of tropical fish. While traveling to the tropics, a man from England ate some bad seafood that contained the unusual poison. His story, and the tale of some unfortunate sailors of an earlier age who suffered the same affliction, appeared in the current issue of Practical Neurology and was summarized on the Wired Science Blog. Both the Wired blog and the peer-reviewed journal neglected to mention that the potent neurotoxin has been made from scratch by organic chemists."

24 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Paradoxical Dysaesthesia by die444die · · Score: 5, Funny

    paradoxical dysaesthesia is hot.

    --
    die444die
    1. Re:Paradoxical Dysaesthesia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I get a burning sensation that it's cool!

  2. Remember when... by The_Mystic_For_Real · · Score: 5, Informative

    Remember when submitters used to mark links that required payment?

    --

    _____

    Thank you.

    1. Re:Remember when... by Nullav · · Score: 4, Informative

      How the hell was this modded off-topic? The first link in the summary makes you pay to read beyond a short summary.

      --
      I just read Slashdot for the articles.
  3. Cool! by sahar176 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Errr I mean...Hot!

  4. Hmm by evilviper · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ciguatoxin causes bizarre neurological symptoms including temperature reversal,

    Ah yes, good old XNOR poison... It's been a long time old friend.
    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  5. Ciguatera is Common knowledge by waimate · · Score: 5, Informative

    C'mon, this is common knowledge among people who hang around the pacific. If you catch a large fish, don't eat the whole thing... eat some, and share around to dilute the risk. People have known this for over 30 years. Large fish have higher risk just because they are older.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciguatera

    1. Re:Ciguatera is Common knowledge by ianalis · · Score: 5, Funny

      Share it... for mutually assured destruction :)

    2. Re:Ciguatera is Common knowledge by Otter · · Score: 4, Interesting
      It's been known to Europeans for hundreds of years, and presumably to natives for much longer. (I had a very mild case in Belize a few years ago, from a barracuda.)

      Incidentally, for those wondering why the synthesis of this is newsworthy, check out the structures of this and similar marine toxins. The synthesis of palytoxin, at the bottom, supposedly sent a number of grad students and postdocs to the hospital, as its intermediates are also insanely toxic.

      --
      What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    3. Re:Ciguatera is Common knowledge by Sethb · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yep, I was in Fiji in July, and they served some fish at our resort that was poisoned. I didn't eat any, my mom ate a small bit, but was fine. The resort owner and one other guest were quite ill for days, and their cat that ate the leftovers nearly died. Apparently there's no way to tell if the fish is infected, and cooking it doesn't destroy the toxin.

      --
      When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
  6. About the journal this appeared in... by mdenham · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...would "Practical Neurology" be where you go if you're planning on having a drinking buddy do your brain surgery?

    1. Re:About the journal this appeared in... by sadangel · · Score: 4, Funny

      You insensitive clod! My drinking buddy *is* a world famous neurosurgeon!

  7. Where to order? by clarkkent09 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The article failed to mention where can I get some of this poison? I need to cut down on my heating bill this winter.

    --
    Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
    1. Re:Where to order? by artifex2004 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The article failed to mention where can I get some of this poison? I need to cut down on my heating bill this winter.


      Ethanol is commonly known to give feelings of warmth, ; in fact, the movie A Time For Drunken Horses is so named because the winter weather is so harsh that the only way the Iranian Kurds can get horses to work is to give them liquor.
    2. Re:Where to order? by iknownuttin · · Score: 5, Funny
      The article failed to mention where can I get some of this poison? I need to cut down on my heating bill this winter.

      This is nice and everything, but I want know what the hell is my wife taking that makes her cold even when I'm sweating bullets!

      --
      I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
    3. Re:Where to order? by pla · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ethanol is commonly known to give feelings of warmth

      Except, it doesn't just make you feel warm - It reduces your body's natural tendancy to hoarde blood in your core when the outside temperature drops, thus actually warming your skin and periphery.

      Of course, on the down side, with warmer skin you lose heat faster, and when your core temperature drops a few degrees, you go into hypothermia (and to make matters worse, with a few drinks in you, you might not notice until too late).

  8. French? by youthoftoday · · Score: 3, Funny

    Fish poisson?

    --
    -1 not first post
  9. Nice curiosity, but what are the applications? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would be great if we found a way to selectively "switch" some receptors. Like, when people suffer from burns to ease their pain. Or maybe in a deodorant that tells your skin it's freezing so you don't sweat in the first place.

    The former I'm not too sure about (whether it works or is even a good idea), the latter sounds silly to me, so what could we make out of that? I'm usually not someone asking for applications for a discovery to be "useful", but this is intriguing. Anyone got an idea what to do with that?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:Nice curiosity, but what are the applications? by Abeydoun · · Score: 3, Informative

      As a matter of fact, that's what methanol does. One of it's characteristics is to selectively stimulate the cool-feeling receptors of your skin while leaving practically everything else alone. And on the other hand, there's capsasin, everyone's favorite ingredient in salsa.

      --
      The only consistency in life is the lack thereof
    2. Re:Nice curiosity, but what are the applications? by Jesus_666 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Awesome! I can't wait to read this on the back of deodorant spray cans:

      PoisonCorp(TM) Cool&Fresh(TM) dedorant will give your skin a cool and fresh feeling and will prevent sweating for up to twenty years.

      Known possible side effects include prickling of the skin, headaches, numbness, diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, hyperthermia, hallucinations, lung failure, kidney failure, cardiac arrest, an atypical form of Parkinson's disease, coma and death.

      Not to be taken orally. Keep out of the reach of small children.

      Warning: PoisonCorp(TM) Cool&Fresh(TM) dedorant is known to build up in the groundwater and in animals. Any object that has been in direct contact with PoisonCorp(TM) Cool&Fresh(TM) dedorant at any point as well as the remains of persons, cremated or not, who have used PoisonCorp(TM) Cool&Fresh(TM) dedorant at any point may not be disposed of normally and must be handed over to the Environmental Protection Agency as per the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ("Superfund Act") of 1980.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
  10. Loose teeth? Englishman? by dissolved · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Given the state of our NHS and the mythical availability of dental treatment, I wouldn't put the blame for any feeling of loose teeth down to poison alone...

  11. LSD by nurb432 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can do this too. And cheaper.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  12. Re:Umm...Psychoactive drugs? by Bucc5062 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This isn't "News for Nerds", this is news for the guy who sells you pot.

    Why is the assumption always that /. is only for computer nerds. I've met a few scientists in other fields in my time and they seem just as "nerdy" as my fellow programmers. Some may even stay in the basement of their Mom's house chopping up body parts or mixing toxic chemicals together.

    Either you are new to /. and miss the point that even politics, toxins, and robots can effect "nerds/geeks", you have a secret phobia against fish, or miss the point of just how cool this article is to the community at large.

    Personally, I have enjoyed the odd view some of my fellow /.'ers have posted regarding this article. I also appreciate the news so that when I travel to the Pacific someday, I will take care eating fish.

    Enjoy the moment, we have so few.
    --
    Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
  13. You're lucky by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "what the hell is my wife taking that makes her cold even when I'm sweating bullets!"

    Don't worry, in a few more years, she'll be feeling hot all the time. And she'll yell at you a lot. For no reason you're aware of.

    But on the plus side, all your hair will fall out, and your children will consider you stupid. Which, all things considered, you are.