Sodium Benzoate: The Soda Pop Preservative With a Pyrotechnic Side Hustle Sodium benzoate is a white, odorless crystalline powder or granule with a faintly sweet, salty taste, and it dissolves…

Ferrous Chloride Solution: The Water Treatment Chemical Quietly Brewing Hydrogen Gas Ferrous chloride solution is a strongly acidic liquid that ranges from pale green to greenish-brown depending on concentration and…

Ethyl Acrylate: The Stink That Announces Itself Long Before It Hurts You Ethyl acrylate is a colorless liquid with what is charitably called an acrid, penetrating odor and less charitably…

Bromine Trifluoride: When Water Is the Worst Thing You Can Bring Bromine trifluoride is a straw-colored, fuming liquid that belongs to a family called the interhalogens, which is chemistry's way…

Nitrogen Tetroxide: The Rocket Oxidizer That Waits Until Midnight Nitrogen tetroxide is a reddish-brown gas above room temperature and a yellowish liquid just below it, with a harsh, acrid, bleach-like…

Malathion: The Mosquito Fogger With a Nerve Agent Family Tree Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide that shows up as a colorless to amber oily liquid with a smell most people…

Ketene: The Invisible Lung-Wrecker That Never Sits Still Ketene is a colorless gas with a sharp, penetrating odor and an almost frantic need to react with just about everything it…

Hydrogen Fluoride: The Burn You Don't Feel Until It's Too Late Hydrogen fluoride is a colorless, fuming, sharply pungent chemical that shows up as a gas, as a liquid when…

Potassium Cyanide: The Bitter-Almond Assassin Potassium cyanide is a white, crystalline solid that looks about as threatening as table salt or sugar, which is a big part of what makes…

Formic Acid: The Ant's Revenge That Bites Back Formic acid is the simplest carboxylic acid, a colorless liquid with a sharp, penetrating odor that nature keeps in the venom of…