this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2025
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Today I Learned (TIL)

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[–] bklyn@piefed.social 77 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Technically true, but not for the reason you think

[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 17 points 5 days ago

Technically correct, the best kind of correct.

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Not technically true at all. You would not die of radiation, you'll just poop it out. Maybe fuck up your organs a bit, kidneys and liver but not deadly.

Inhaling this stuff is where it becomes dangerous because it stays in the lungs.

There are far more dangerous things to ingest but nothing with digestible calories. The entire premise is based on ignorance and fear.

[–] Greg@lemmy.ca 19 points 5 days ago

You're right about ingesting uranium but the premise of this post was based on ignorance and humour, not ignorance and fear. I'm just stupid not scared.

[–] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 26 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That’s a thousand days’ worth of kcals.

On the other hand, that’s enough uranium for the rest of one’s life.

[–] mech@feddit.org 4 points 5 days ago

ten thousand

[–] Sarcasmo@piefed.social 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

But you'll be hungry again in half an hour.

[–] Ininewcrow@piefed.ca 3 points 5 days ago

It's like Chinese food ... it just goes right through you.

[–] SalamenceFury@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago (5 children)

And also, bananas are radioactive. If you ate 40.000 bananas in 10 minutes you would die of radioactive poisoning.

[–] jeff@programming.dev 13 points 5 days ago (3 children)

(me, an American) Well, forty isn't that many.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 8 points 5 days ago

Very, very precisely forty.

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Unless it's cakes. That's as many as four tens. And that's terrible.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 4 points 5 days ago

Wasn't entirely sure that 3d.p. of precision is necessary when measuring bananas.

[–] SantasMagicalComfort@piefed.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Would it kill you if you shoved forty thousand bananas up your ass in ten minutes?

[–] classic@fedia.io 3 points 5 days ago

Mr Hands as entered the chat

[–] mech@feddit.org 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure you'd die from something else, but I'm no doctor.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 days ago

From slipping on all the banana peels.

[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 days ago

It's more in the range of 40.000.000 if I remember correctly.

[–] Ininewcrow@piefed.ca 1 points 5 days ago

The pressurized bananas that need to be sent into your system as fast as possible would probably be shot right through your skull.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Too caloric for me. I'm trying to lose weight, okay??

[–] the_trash_man@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Just one slice of yellow cake won't hurt

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

This is technically incorrect, because calories in food are measured using a bomb calorimeter or similar techniques. In this device a small sample is burned and the heat is measured, which indicates the number of calories it has.

Uranium is fireproof. It has 0 calories.

Even enriched Uranium with a lot of unstable isotopes would not give up noticeable energy/heat in regular sample sizes for this process.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Just because the human body cannot extract the energy doesn’t mean the energy isn’t there.

Edit: I love the pedants trying to force logic into an absurd post.

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Obviusly.

But if we're gonna do the math that way, every atom in the universe has an insane amount of energy.

It's just to get at it, you need to either split or fuse the atoms. Doing this just happens to be easy with uranium, it's not that special in terms of energy density.

And a bomb calorimeter isn't precises either, but it gets close because burning the food is what our bodies do, too.

[–] Poojabber@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago (2 children)

There is a fire in my belly when I eat?

[–] Greg@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago

That explains why my butt hole burns sometimes

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Not your belly, but in your cells, yes.

The reason you need oxygen, is that your cells use it to "burn" stuff a few atoms at a time, for energy.

It's the same reaction as fire. Oxidation. Though inside our bodies it happens in an extremely controlled manner.

Although cellular respiration is technically a combustion reaction, it is an unusual one because of the slow, controlled release of energy from the series of reactions.

[–] Mubelotix@jlai.lu 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You are confusing facts with measurements of facts. Uranium has a lot of chemical energy, just like food. Yes it's different and not edible, but this is a flaw in the human body, don't blame uranium for it

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Uranium has nuclear energy.

But if we are gonna count that when discussing food, then every atom has a shitton of energy.

Uranium just happens to be easy to split, hence we can actually use the nuclear energy.

But if you could split the atoms of bread, that's gona release unimagineable amounts of energy, too.

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If you are measuring calories that way, then you have to consider that anything you eat contains e=mc^2^ energy.

[–] Greg@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago

That's my excuse for getting fat. Even the air I breathes contains millions of calories

[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 5 days ago

Doesn't that depend on the specific isotopes? U-238 might be not that much of a problem as one might think...

[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I wonder what the best conversion rate from uranium kcals to human consumable cals would be.

Like is nuclear power to LEDs to plants the best route? Maybe radiation to fungus to some kind of slurry?

[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 days ago

sheesh we could just use the heat for yogurt incubators. if it's gotta be slurry why can't it be delicious 😭

[–] observantTrapezium@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The second level of stupid here is that 20 million kcal would last ~ 22 to 27 years (at 2000 to 2500 kcal a day), so not very optimistic about your longevity.

I'd say that's a pretty optimistic estimate of longevity of someone willing to eat uranium (let alone someone who actually does it)

[–] Greg@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago