I don't usually do these, but...

Happy birthday, quasigeostrophy! May you have a year filled with joy, laughter, and more academic successes. :-)

Toxin tolerance (random bio geekery)

A while back, on a community I follow, someone asked a Princess-Bride-style question about ingesting small amounts of poison in order to develop an immunity.

Here's ( the answer I would have posted if I'd had my brain handy at the time. )

Any biogeeks are totally welcome to chime in here and tell me what I've left out and what I've got wrong. :-) (The general anesthesia bit above is anecdotal, but at least it's from my biology professor, who I presume has clue. Her dad went through exactly that.)