A single miniscule drop of a toxic chemical led to the death of a female scientist a whole 10 months after she first made contact with it View 2 Images She touched a single drop of dimethylmercury (Image: harodominguez via Getty Images)

A teacher and scientist met a tragic end due to a minuscule droplet - no larger than a raindrop - of a single chemical that came into contact with her skin. ‌

Karen Wetterhahn was employed as a research chemist at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, US, investigating the impact of heavy metals on living organisms when she unwittingly became a subject of her own study. ‌

In the summer of 1996, the scientist was working with a chemical known as dimethylmercury when an infinitesimal drop fell from her pipette tip onto her latex glove. ‌

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