898
Venom vs Poison (mander.xyz)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] TechLich@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yep, and even when talking about living things it's not a clear distinction.

In biology, poison is a substance that causes harm when an organism is exposed to it. Venom is a poison that enters the body through a sting or bite. In a bunch of medical fields though, poisons only apply to toxins that are ingested or absorbed through the skin and that definition sometimes carries across to zoology.

Venomous creatures are poisonous by most definitions because venom is a poison. But if the distinction is useful in a medical or zoological context then they're not.

tldr: The pedantry of eg. correcting someone who says a snake is poisonous is totally pointless and mostly wrong.

this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
898 points (98.6% liked)

Science Memes

10309 readers
2177 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS