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Message:: [QUOTE="-jeffB, post: 1561225, member: 27832"]I wanted mercury since earliest childhood, when the "chemical magic" and "science fun" books were full of experiments that called for it. About the time I got enough disposable income to think about laying some in, it became effectively impossible to buy or sell. It's dangerous, in insidious ways. The regulations that have been imposed at various levels are not "overreaching", at least not in my opinion. But it's a terrible shame, because the stuff is so darn useful. Relatively cheap, relatively inert, conductive, dense, non-sticky -- we can come up with substitutes that have some of these characteristics, but only a couple at a time. For example, I made a bit of gallium-indium alloy that's pretty non-toxic and stays liquid well below room temperature. But it sticks to glass and plastic like crazy, and it forms a nasty skin of oxide that ruins it for many applications. And it costs close to a buck a GRAM.[/QUOTE]