The hunt for red mercury
Depending on whom you believe, red mercury has magical healing powers or can be used to make nuclear bombs. But it doesn’t actually exist. So why is it being sold online?
Some believe red mercury is a mystical elixir with magical healing powers that has survived from the time of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt.
Others fear that it is a dangerous nuclear material, which in the wrong hands could bring about the apocalypse.
However, red mercury doesn’t actually exist. So why is it being offered for sale on social media?
We go in search of the many amazing lives of this mysterious mythical material.
Presenter: Mike Wendling
Reporter: Sarah Myles
Producer: Ed Main
(Photo Caption: Illustration of a red splodge / Photo Credit: Getty Images)
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- Fri 6 Sep 2019 21:06GMTBBC World Service except West and Central Africa
- Sat 7 Sep 2019 04:32GMTBBC World Service Australasia, News Internet, Europe and the Middle East, West and Central Africa & East Asia only
- Sat 7 Sep 2019 10:32GMTBBC World Service
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- Sat 25 Apr 2020 08:32GMTBBC World Service except Australasia, East Asia, Europe and the Middle East & South Asia
- Sat 25 Apr 2020 17:32GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa, Europe and the Middle East & West and Central Africa
- Sun 26 Apr 2020 22:32GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Sun 26 Apr 2020 23:32GMTBBC World Service South Asia
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