Kissing under the mistletoe is a holiday tradition. Eating it is not, because mistletoe has a reputation as being poisonous. Yet many of us know someone who ate a berry or two as a kid and lived to tell the tale, so just how toxic is mistletoe?

The answer is: it depends on the type of mistletoe and what part you eat. There are several species of mistletoe. The Pharoadendron species contain a toxin called phoratoxin, which can cause blurred vision, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, blood pressure changes, and even death. The Viscum species of mistletoe contain a slightly different cocktail of chemicals, including the poisonous alkaloid tyramine, which produce essential the same symptoms. Although mistletoe has therapeutic uses, eating any part of the plant (particularly the leaves or berries) or drinking a tea from the plant can result in sickness and possibly death. Unlike the holiday poinsettia, which has a bad reputation yet probably won't do more than make you feel sick if you eat it, mistletoe ingestion warrants a call to Poison Control and immediate medical attention.

December 10^th marks the passing of Alfred Nobel. Nobel was a Swedish chemist and entrepreneur who invented dynamite. He was attempting to create a method to make nitroglycerin safer to use and handle. The success of dynamite and his patents made him a wealthy man.

On April 12, 1888, A French newspaper erroneously reported Nobel's death. The article referred to him as someone who grew rich by finding better ways to people to kill each others and called him 'The Merchant of Death'. He was understandably upset by what his legacy would be. He set out to change his will to include $9 million trust that established the Nobel Foundation. This Foundation would award yearly Prizes in science and peace to recognize achievements in these fields.

The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901 on the anniversary of his death. Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

Yes, I'm holding fire in my hands (and not getting burned). You can play with fire, too. Here's how...

Just in case you were wondering, I can verify from experience that you can drop one of these on a carpet and it won't burst into flames or melt the carpet. Good to know, don't you think?

December 9^th is Fritz Haber's birthday. Haber was a German chemist who discovered a process to create ammonia from atmospheric gases. The Haber-Bosch process is a reaction that fixes nitrogen to form ammonia (NH₃) from nitrogen gas (N₂) and hydrogen gas (H₂) under pressure over an iron catalyst. Haber discovered the process on a laboratory scale using table top equipment. German chemical engineer Carl Bosch converted the laboratory equipment to be used on large scale industrial equipment. This process was important in the production of agricultural fertilizers to replace the guano industry of South America. During World War I, the process was important to Germany for the production of munitions and explosives.

The process would earn both Haber and Bosch Nobel Prizes in Chemistry (1918 and 1931 respectively). Today, the Haber-Bosch process accounts for 100 million tons of fertilizer per year. Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.