5 ms·

To your actual question yes and no. In the past, yes. Currently no. I think its more the principle. Nicotine, like caffine was evolved by planets as a pesticid

To your actual question yes and no. In the past, yes. Currently no. I think its more the principle. Nicotine, like caffine was evolved by planets as a pesticide. Animals (like parasites) that don't normally come in contact with it, likely don't have resitances to it. Highly evolved Apes like us, are simply to big and evolutionarily advanced to be killed by such a small dose of poison.

gwern 12y ago
> Highly evolved Apes like us, are simply to big and evolutionarily advanced to be killed by such a small dose of poison. I don't know about 'advanced'; my understanding was that our protein were simply slightly different, enough to make nicotine not a potent poison, but just another substance you don't want to take too much of.
pessimizer 12y ago
>Highly evolved Apes like us, are simply to big and evolutionarily advanced to be killed by such a small dose of poison. I think it takes eating four cigarettes to kill you.
- aranazo 12y ago
  A cigarette contains up to a gram of tobacco with a nicotine content of 0.5 to 2 percent. A recent estimate of nicotine's human LD50 is in the range of 0.5 to 1 grams. A four cigarette dose would seem unlikely to be lethal.
  - pessimizer 12y ago
    http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/chemical/nicotine.htm#PartTitle:7.%20TOXICOLOGY http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/chemical/nicotine.htm#P... 7.2.1 Human data 7.2.1.1 Adults The mean lethal dose has been estimated to be 30 to 60 mg (0.5-1.0 mg/kg) (Gosselin, 1988). 7.2.1.2 Children The lethal dose is considered to be about 10 mg of nicotine (Arena, 1974). 7.2.2 Relevant animal data Dog: oral LD50: 9.2 mg/kg mouse: oral LD50: 3.3 mg/kg (RTECS, 1985-86) rat: oral LD50: 50 mg/kg 0.5-1.0 mg/kg, not 0.5-1.0 grams. Don't go eating cigarettes. edit: http://abcnews.go.com/US/paul-curry-convicted-1994-nicotine-poisoning-death-wife/story?id=25881116 http://abcnews.go.com/US/paul-curry-convicted-1994-nicotine-... edit2: I see what you saw - http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00204-013-1127-0/fulltext.html http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00204-013-1127-0...
- axaxs 12y ago
  That's nowhere near true...
cbd1984 12y ago
> Highly evolved Apes like us, are simply to big and evolutionarily advanced to be killed by such a small dose of poison. This completely misunderstands evolution on a very basic level, and is wrong beyond the hope of being salvaged.

gwern 12y ago

> Highly evolved Apes like us, are simply to big and evolutionarily advanced to be killed by such a small dose of poison. I don't know about 'advanced'; my understanding was that our protein were simply slightly different, enough to make nicotine not a potent poison, but just another substance you don't want to take too much of.

pessimizer 12y ago

>Highly evolved Apes like us, are simply to big and evolutionarily advanced to be killed by such a small dose of poison. I think it takes eating four cigarettes to kill you.

aranazo 12y ago
A cigarette contains up to a gram of tobacco with a nicotine content of 0.5 to 2 percent. A recent estimate of nicotine's human LD50 is in the range of 0.5 to 1 grams. A four cigarette dose would seem unlikely to be lethal.
- pessimizer 12y ago
  http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/chemical/nicotine.htm#PartTitle:7.%20TOXICOLOGY http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/chemical/nicotine.htm#P... 7.2.1 Human data 7.2.1.1 Adults The mean lethal dose has been estimated to be 30 to 60 mg (0.5-1.0 mg/kg) (Gosselin, 1988). 7.2.1.2 Children The lethal dose is considered to be about 10 mg of nicotine (Arena, 1974). 7.2.2 Relevant animal data Dog: oral LD50: 9.2 mg/kg mouse: oral LD50: 3.3 mg/kg (RTECS, 1985-86) rat: oral LD50: 50 mg/kg 0.5-1.0 mg/kg, not 0.5-1.0 grams. Don't go eating cigarettes. edit: http://abcnews.go.com/US/paul-curry-convicted-1994-nicotine-poisoning-death-wife/story?id=25881116 http://abcnews.go.com/US/paul-curry-convicted-1994-nicotine-... edit2: I see what you saw - http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00204-013-1127-0/fulltext.html http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00204-013-1127-0...
axaxs 12y ago
That's nowhere near true...

cbd1984 12y ago

> Highly evolved Apes like us, are simply to big and evolutionarily advanced to be killed by such a small dose of poison. This completely misunderstands evolution on a very basic level, and is wrong beyond the hope of being salvaged.