The Science of Muria

First question which may pop into everyone's mind would be how can we neutralize Sulfura, assuming she is a walking sulfuric acid jelly? Spraying her with water would weaken her by dilution, the same way that fruit juice tastes flatter the more we add water to it. To neutralize Sulfura is to take away her acidity. In chemistry, this is achieved by adding an alkaline substance (like soaps and detergent) to an acid to produce water and another substance like salts (in our case, Glauber's salt which is sodium sulfate; table salt is sodium chloride or NaCl).

This is how we will neutralize Sulfura (don't bother with the numbers, look into my eyes):

The graphic representation is not accurate though. We need more than one bottle of detergent. If we use caustic soda (pure sodium hydroxide, NaOH), we need twice as much as Sulfura's body mass. A truckload of Joy would be enough to reduce her to Glauber's salt (sodium sulfate) and water. Easy.

Muria's birthing on the other hand would be a three-step process. As been mentioned before, her mother Galena was thrown into a lead smelter in Marilao by Darna's ancestor during a grudge match. This is what happens inside a lead smelter (again, don't bother with the numbers):

This metallurgical process is called roasting, much like making lechon but more dangerous, since we are injecting pure oxygen gas at a high temperature, rather than charcoal, to the lead sulfide ore to produce lead oxide (to be treated further to produce pure lead, Pb) and sulfur dioxide gas. Think of how intense the fire would be, our lechon would be reduced to tasteless ash.

Muria won't come into the picture yet. The stream of high-temperature oxygen gas is continuous, and sulfur dioxide becomes sulfur trioxide (look into my eyes, baby):

Sulfur trioxide is critical in the production of acid rain, which is how we will form Muria in the month of August when rainwater is highest (there you go):

Muria, our acid girl is born. Her hydrogen sulfide breath to generate acid rain works in the same way as the first equation where Galena was thrown into the lead smelter. Just replace the "2PbS" with "H₂S" and the "2PbO" with "2H₂O."

Muria's birthing process would be like this: Galena is transformed into molten lead oxide when she exits the smelter's furnace. Still harmful due to the inherent nature of lead, and while she is solidifying, the stormy August sky created acid rain from the gases escaping from the furnace. This acid leached into a nearby piggery and coalesced with organic matter which Galena fashioned into a gelatinous human being, her daughter Muria.

Muria exhaled hydrogen sulfide and on her first cry, she smothered Galena to death. And that is how Muria's bitterness began.

N.B. Hydrogen sulfide is produced normally in human beings to regulate body temperature and metabolic activity. This compound gives utot its characteristic smell, and so do gas coming from piggeries and natural gas sources like Malampaya. High concentrations of hydrogen sulfide are deadly.

Next on Skythologies: What's the story, Dr. Zombie? Or, is your call center agent human?

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This entry was posted by sky, on Tuesday, May 17, 2005. You can leave your response.