Mercury is a highly toxic material.  While it is unsafe for handling by humans , it has been utilized extensively throughout History due to its inherently useful properties.

There are approximately 40 million artisanal miners around the world right now. When Hobbes said that life is ‘nasty, brutish and short’, he was not talking about these miners, though he could have been.

Gold is at the heart of the human imagination; gold bars, gold rings, gold watches, or put another way, value, love and wealth. What is the story of gold?