Bismuth burns with a blue flame and clouds of yellow oxide when heated in air, according to Robert E. Krebs in his book, "The History and Use of Our Earth’s Chemical Elements: A Reference Guide ...

Bismuth sits in a funny spot on the periodic table, at the turning point of what I call "poisoner's corridor." It cleaves the periodic table into two sets of dangerous elements.

So much, in fact, that I was able to extract a slug of bismuth metal from a pile of pink pills. Click here to enter the gallery. One two-pill dose of Pepto-Bismol contains 262 milligrams ...