What's your favourite chemical?

[k_s]

What he said.

Contrary to popular belief the virus that causes genital herpes is different to the virus that causes cold sores.

 

[Jorum]

Carbon Diselenide, just because it apparently reeks to high heaven.
To quote a chemist

carbon diselenide...the selenide is an oily liquid with a higher boiling point than water. Most of organic chemists have never seen it, which is just fine. The first report of the compound....is from a German university group from 1936, and it was a memorable debut.....a footnote from the experimental section which related how the vapors had unfortunately escaped the laboratory and forced the evacuation of a nearby village. The authors stressed the point that its aroma was like nothing that they'd ever encountered.

hmm.......
anyone up for some amateur chemistry and visit to westminster?

 

[fen_boy]

I like Phenol, or any of the alkali metals - they rock.

 

[fudgefactorfive]

A neutron star.

In a sense they are just one big atom. Matter has been crushed and degenerated to the point where atomic nuclei are cheek by jowl. There is nowhere you can point at and say, one chemical element begins here and ends there. In a deranged sense, the whole star is a single ion of a very peculiar chemical. It's a hugely charged, hugely dense, very busy, great big fuck-off ball of insanity. The word "exotic" just curls up and dies. What's not to love?

You could argue that black holes are a bit like that, but I think they've truly left the realm of the chemical.