SCI-FI SUBSTANCES
Superman's one weakness is this green crystalline mineral from his home planet.
What is kryptonite?
In Breaking Bad, Walter White's signature product is famously this color.
What is blue?
Dalton's atomic theory got this fundamental claim wrong: that atoms of an element are indivisible and cannot be created or destroyed; this 20th-century phenomenon proved otherwise.
What is radioactive decay?
The 2020 explosion that devastated this Lebanese capital's port was caused by improperly stored ammonium nitrate.
What is Beirut?
his technique, developed by Willard Libby, dates organic artifacts using a radioactive isotope of carbon.
What is radiocarbon dating?
This vibration-absorbing Wakandan metal is the basis for Captain America's shield and Black Panther's suit.
What is vibranium?
his chemiluminescent compound, sprayed by CSI investigators, glows blue when it contacts traces of blood.
What is luminol?
The Bohr model correctly predicted hydrogen's spectrum but failed for any atom with more than this many electrons.
What is one?
The 1984 Bhopal disaster occurred at a plant manufacturing this type of chemical product.
What are pesticides?
Analysis of this toxic element in Napoleon's hair fueled speculation he was poisoned in exile.
What is arsenic?
In Dune, this orange spice harvested on Arrakis enables interstellar navigation and extends life.
What is melange?
In Breaking Bad, Walt uses this acid to dissolve a body, and accidentally a bathtub.
What is hydrofluoric acid?
Linus Pauling, twice a Nobel laureate, famously proposed this incorrect structure for DNA in 1953, a version with phosphates on the inside.
What is the triple helix?
The 1986 Chernobyl reactor used this material as a moderator, which caught fire and spread radioactive contamination.
What is graphite?
Ancient Roman aristocrats may have suffered cognitive decline from this metal, which leached into their wine from sweetened storage vessels.
What is lead?
In Star Trek, this fictional crystal regulates matter-antimatter reactions in warp cores.
What is dilithium?
In The Martian, Mark Watney makes water by burning this rocket fuel component to release hydrogen.
What is hydrazine?
In 1989, Fleischmann and Pons announced they'd achieved this at room temperature in an electrochemical cell, sparking a brief media frenzy before replication failed.
What is cold fusion?
Factory workers who licked their brushes to paint glowing watch dials in the 1920s suffered horrific bone damage from this element.
What is radium?
The vivid blue in many Renaissance paintings came from grinding this semi-precious stone, at the time more expensive than gold.
What is lapis lazuli?
In Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, this fictional polymorph of water freezes any liquid it touches at room temperature.
What is ice-nine?
In Iron Man 2, Tony Stark synthesizes a new element to replace the palladium poisoning him; in real life, this element with atomic number 117 was synthesized in 2010 and named for a U.S. state.
What is tennessine?
Before oxygen was understood, combustion was explained by the release of this hypothetical fire-substance.
What is phlogiston?
The 1917 Halifax explosion, the largest accidental explosion before the atomic bomb, occurred when a French cargo ship loaded with this powerful explosive, also used to fill WWI artillery shells, collided with another vessel in the harbor.
What is TNT?
The Shroud of Turin was radiocarbon-dated in 1988 to this century, suggesting medieval rather than ancient origin.
What is the 13th or 14th century?