[inigyou]

You can centrifuge it. Heavier molecules move closer to the bottom. Repeat until you reach the desired purity.

You need shitloads of ordinary water to extract a liter of heavy water. And I'd be surprised if there's any superheavy water in that, because tritium radioactively decays.

Fun fact: Heavy water is slightly toxic to humans. If you only drank heavy water, you'd die as it shifts the chemical reactions in your body out of balance. A moderate amount is fine though.

[0cf8612b2e1e]

Emphasis on the slightly. I believe it would take weeks of only consuming heavy water. You could certainly drink a single glass of it without ill effects.

[danbruc]

Another fun fact - heavy water has a sweet taste.

[htrp]

How did someone ever figure this one out?

[inigyou]

Probably by drinking it. As I said, it's only slightly toxic. Cody's Lab has done it on YouTube. 0.01% of the normal water you drink is heavy water.

[bell-cot]

IIR, a number of rich & famous people have developed severe mercury poisoning after extended conspicuous consumption of swordfish and other very expensive/very contaminated seafood.

Obviously the luxury bottled water industry is missing out on the potential of D2O and T2O.

[fnord77]

they're making medicines now with deuterium to alter the half-life

[woadwarrior01]

Deuterium or tritium? Deuterium is a stable isotope and does not decay.

[inigyou]

Probably deuterium. Half-life doesn't only mean radioactive decay, it also means the rate at which a medication is broken down or excreted from the body. Tritium is more likely to be used as a radioactive tracer.