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Mmmm, a refreshing glass of cold water, and if you think I'm talking about H2O, then you're right.
But I could be sipping on heavy water, or deuterium oxide, aka D2O, just as easily.
Well, not just as easily… it's super expensive, and you have to, like, buy it from lab supply stores, but you get my point.
Deuterium is a form of hydrogen, or isotope, with a bonus neutron, which makes it twice as heavy as the regular hydrogen we all know and love.
That's why when there's deuterium in water molecules, it's about 10% heavier, and we call it "heavy water".
And one of our patrons on Patreon, who goes by Kutsop, wanted to know what would happen if you just drank a glass of heavy water.
Well, in small amounts—even a glass or two —heavy water is fine.
In fact, in combination with an oxygen isotope, it's used in lots of nutrition experiments in humans because it's a useful way to track how much energy you're spending.
But don't go filling up all your bottles with pure deuterium oxide, because too much will almost definitely kill you.
