History Main / ArtisticLicenseChemistry

* In the ''Series/{{Bones}}'' episode "[[Recap/BonesS6E8TheTwistedBonesInTheMeltedTruck The Twisted Bones In The Melted Truck]]", the VictimOfTheWeek's bones were "melted" by exposure to a magnesium fire. Magnesium burns at 5000°F plus which would have been more than hot enough to melt the bullet which was found intact within the skeleton (lead melts at 622°F, steel at 2500°F).

* According to the ''VideoGame/{{Atelier}}'' series, a vial of green and a couple of apples somehow creates pie. With crust and pan included, to boot. Want another flavor, or sprinkles or something? Toss in a hunk of metal too.

* The C[[subscript:2]]O brand of coconut water. It's meant to be a play on the letter 'C' for coconut and the formula for water, H[[subscript:2]]O, but C is also the symbol for carbon. In other words, according to the name of the product, you're drinking dicarbon monoxide.

* The C[[subscript:2]]O brand of coconut water. It's meant to be a play on the letter 'C' for coconut and the formula for water, H[[subscript:2]]O, but C is also the symbol for carbon. So...dicarbon monoxide?

* The C[[subscript:2]]O brand of coconut water. It's meant to be a play on the letter 'C' for coconut and the formula for H[[subscript:2]]O water, but C is also the symbol for carbon. So...dicarbon monoxide?

** The original 1954 ''Film/{{Gojira}}'' movie has [[EyepatchOfPower Dr. Serizawa]] use an invention called the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Oxygen Destroyer]] to kill Godzilla. In the film, the device worked by dissolving oxygen molecules in the water causing asphyxiation (and also, for some odd reason, dissolving the tissues, bones, etc.) of anything unfortunate enough to get within range of it when it's used. A horrible, horrible way to die. Still, it does leave a LOT of questions on how exactly it ''works''.

** Parodied in an episode of the Simpsons where the classroom had a periodic table "sponsored by Oscar Meyer" with Bolognium (atomic weight: "delicious" or "snacktacular").

* In fiction, antimatter is often represented as the future of energy supply. Currently, it's the molecular equivalent of a perpetual-motion machine -- making antimatter requires a lot more energy than it releases (probably ''vastly'' more, as at present where it can only be found briefly in particle accelerators).

* The Creator/AlanMoore era of ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}'' introduced the mysterious element "Supremium", which both originally gave Supreme his powers, and acts as his Kryptonite equivalent. [[spoiler:It is strongly hinted that Supremium is created from any other form of matter that becomes caught in a StableTimeLoop.]]
* An issue of ''ComicBook/AdventureComics'' from 1947 has ComicBook/Superboy help a friend win a contest to show off the most valuable specimen of whatever. The rich kid brings diamonds, which Superboy tops with several tons of pitchblende. Even though the judge proclaims the pitchblende victorious because it's an ore of extremely valuable uranium and radium, there's no acknowledgement of the corollary: It's dangerously radioactive. The comics-medicine blog Polite Dissent [[http://www.politedissent.com/archives/4850 ran the numbers]] and concluded that the contestant and judge standing next to the rock for even a few minutes had a poor chance of surviving their radiation poisoning, while cancer rates were measurably increased for everyone else in the room. Not to worry; Superboy himself would be just fine.

* Doc Magnus, creator of the ComicBook/MetalMen admits that the technology and theories that power his creations are so profoundly unscientific that they have more in common with magic or alchemy than chemistry. Essentially, he created a "responsometer" which can somehow draw out the inherent personality within a pure metal, allowing it to be built into a humanoid robot with full sapience and an attitude derived from the metal itself. Aside from this, though the Metal Men do have powers derived from their base metal (Gold and Platinum can stretch into fine filament, Lead is incredibly heavy and can block radiation, Mercury is liquid, etc.), quite a few aspects are at the very least straining against the science--for instance, Mercury somehow avoids poisoning everyone around him, and Platinum, a human-sized female robot apparently made of the stuff, was somehow able to be ''built'' for less than a billion dollars.

** In Franchise/TheDCU it's their version of adamantium.
** In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse Promethium is used as the name of an extradimensional metal with magical properties. Marvel's big on this; while vibranium and adamantium are both described as "alloys", neither exists in the real world.

* "Nth Metal", the substance from which Thanagarian weapons are made in the DCU. Stated in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' to be "transuranic iron", whatever that means. If we assume by "iron" they mean "group 8 element on the periodic table", then the first transuranic element would be hassium, which has a maximum half-life of about 10 seconds. Presumably, fights involving Thanagarians are short ones.
* Invoked and subverted in one comic by ComicBook/TheJoker in a discussion with Catwoman after tagging her with a radioactive isotope tracker hidden in a pie he threw at her. The whole idea was that once she had the tracer on her, the Joker could then play [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame a twisted game of cat and mouse with her throughout Gotham]] (Hint: She's not the cat...). Subverted in the sense that yes, radioactive isotope tracers can work that way, and invoked in the following conversation:

'''Joker:''' My hair is ''green''.
* Both Golden and Silver Age [[Franchise/TheFlash Flashes]] became empowered thanks to dodgy chemistry.

* An issue of Adventure Comics from 1947 had a young {{Franchise/Superman}} help a friend win a contest to show off the most valuable specimen of whatever. The [[RichKids rich kid]] brings diamonds, which Superboy tops with several tons of pitchblende. Even though the judge proclaims the pitchblende victorious because it's an ore of extremely valuable uranium and radium, there's no acknowledgement of the corollary: It's dangerously radioactive. The comics-medicine blog Polite Dissent [[http://www.politedissent.com/archives/4850 ran the numbers]] and concluded that the contestant and judge standing next to the rock for even a few minutes had a poor chance of surviving their radiation poisoning, while cancer rates were measurably increased for everyone else in the room. Not to worry; Superboy himself would be [[BewareTheSuperman just fine]].

* The ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' books use this trope as the foundation of the setting's FunctionalMagic system. Metallic elements can be metabolized by people possessing the appropriate expressed mutation, giving them various powers depending on the alloy. The one element that's not a real-life chemical element, Atium, is implied to be an unstable isotope of one of the more massive elements, though the story declines naming a specific substance in order to avoid fridge logic from readers with a stronger background in chemistry than the author.
** The abilities are loosely tied to popular knowledge of real-world uses of the alloys involved, as well:
*** Iron is known to be magnetic, so its power involves pulling other metals toward the user
*** Tin was a common material in lamps and reflectors, so its use enhances the senses
*** Gold doesn't oxidize under most circumstances, so it's used in a form of postcognition
*** Chrome is used to harden steel (roughly) so its use destroys other metal powers
*** Pewter, being a lead-based alloy, allows the user to act as if they were denser than they are

** Several uses of chemistry in the series were investigated in ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' in a [[http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2013/08/mythbusters-breaking-bad-methbusters-prove-and-disprove-2-iconic-season-1-moments.html special episode]] about ''Breaking Bad''. The scenes where the hydrofluoric acid ate through the tub in "Cat's in the Bag" and where mercury fulminate was used to blow up a room in "Crazy Handful of Nothin'" each wound up being busted. In response, Vince Gilligan cited ArtisticLicense as justification: [[AndSomeOtherStuff he screwed up the chemistry deliberately so the show couldn't be used as an instruction manual]]. He also suggested a potential HandWave when the [=MythBusters=] couldn't set off the Hg fulminate with an impact: Walt used more volatile silver fulminate as a primary explosive.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' season 2 episode "Firewalker" features a deadly parasitic fungus that grows inside volcanic caves. Scully reads from the annotations of the scientist who discovered it that the fungus' metabolism is based on converting hydrogen sulfide into silicon dioxide (so the victims are found with sand inside their lungs), and the paper she's holding actually displays the formula "[=H2S=] → [=SiO2=]". This makes no sense because sulfur (S) is a completely different element from silicon (Si), and Scully of all people should have noticed the discrepancy.

* ''Literature/TheCosmere'': Aluminum is magically inert, and as such interferes with or resists most Invested Arts. It can't be Pushed or Pulled by [[Franchise/{{Mistborn}} Allomancy]], [[Literature/TheStormlightArchive Soulcast or cut by a Shardblade]], or altered by [[Literature/TheEmperorsSoul Forgery]]. Similarly, an aluminum-lined hat will protect the wearer against emotional Allomancy, Investiture in an aluminum-lined room cannot be detected from outside, and bits of aluminum can block fabrial connection along certain axes of motion.

* In H.G.Wells' ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', the Martians' Black Smoke is said to be made of an unknown element that reacts with the Argon in the atmosphere, causing devastating effects on humans. Argon, being a noble gas, is extremely difficult to react and the reaction will never happen in the atmosphere. Also, the story got confused as to the spectral characteristics of this element; one part claiming that its lines were in the green, and another, in the blue.

* In ''Film/TheRock'': VX gas is real and is generally considered to be one of the most lethal chemical agents currently in existence (it has been outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993). However the film portrays VX as a blistering agent, causing blisters and melting people's faces off, while in reality it is a nerve agent that causes your muscles to contract and not relax, visually it would appear as if the person was having a seizure. It is also colorless and tasteless, not the eldritch green shade in the movie. The movie did accurately portray how lethal it is, a dose as low as 10 mg is considered lethal just from skin contact.

* ''Film/{{Evolution}}'' did this for selenium. They {{hand wave}}d it by saying that selenium was to the alien creatures' nitrogen-based biochemistry as arsenic is to carbon-based life forms, because they're in the ''same relative position on the periodic table''. This handwave made it clear that nobody involved in the movie understands the concept of valence electrons[[note]]In real life, arsenic is poisonous because of its relative position to ''phosphorus'', which it can impersonate as far as certain core enzymes are concerned, but it is not quite similar enough that, say, an RNA molecule made with arsenate links instead of phosphate ones will actually fit into a ribosome[[/note]]. Besides, the Rule of Funny dictated they ''had'' to defeat the EldritchAbomination amoeba with gallons of [[ProductPlacement anti-dandruff shampoo]]. There is also the fact that they ''never tested their theory'' before loading tons of the shampoo into a fire truck and going after the amoeba's cloaca. For that matter, the phrase "nitrogen-based biochemistry" is a real howler to chemists in its own right.[[note]]Nitrogen atoms just doesn't form long stable chains the way carbon atoms do. In fact, molecules composed primarily of nitrogen atoms tend to be violently explosive.[[/note]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Frozone says he cannot put out a fire because he's dehydrated and there's no water in the air for him to use. Meanwhile, the background shows they're surrounded by burning wood. The main reaction in wood fires is cellulose reacting with oxygen, forming carbon dioxide and water vapor. Which says something interesting about Frozone's powers that he can't access it while dehydrated.

* In ''Fanfic/DiaryOfAWimpyKidPizzaProblems'', throwing a pizza with hot sauce and bell peppers into an open fire burns Greg's school down to the ground. Spicy ingredients do not affect the flammability of food, and even if it did, the resulting fire wouldn't be large enough to spread across an entire building.

** Said mineable bronze comes from the bones of dead gods.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Donal Noye compares Stannis Baratheon to pure iron in the sense that he's [[PrinciplesZealot hard, brittle and unbending]]. Pure iron is actually ''soft and malleable''. It's more egregious because the character saying this is a blacksmith.

* In ''Film/Deadpool2016'', the titular character [[spoiler:throws a match at an oxygen line to destroy the oxygen deprivation torture machine he is stuck in.]] Oxygen doesn't burn by itself, it needs something ''to oxidise'', so in this example, all that should have happened is [[spoiler:the match burning brighter and faster than normal until it was burned completely.]]

** The showrunners actually invoke this trope when it comes to the cooking scenes, deliberately leaving out or incorrectly depicting steps of the meth-making process. This was done so that nobody tries to use the show as a template to make meth in real life.

* The showrunners actually invoke this trope when it comes to the cooking scenes, deliberately leaving out or incorrectly depicting steps of the meth-making process. This was done so that nobody tries to use the show as a template to make meth in real life.

* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' treats thermite as an explosive that blasts away a barrier made from scrap, while it actually behaves a lot more like an extremely hot liquid that melts through anything. Just slapping a pack to a vertical steel plate and igniting it would only result in the whole thermite pouring down the plate to the floor and only leaving a scorch mark on the plate.

* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'': There's an episode in which an ulcer-plagued soap-maker is murdered by his wife, who dumps his body in one of his rendering vats and turns him into a stack of bath products. She uses one of these soap bars in the shower, only to be fatally burned by the residual acid from his stomach ... which is impossible, as turning fats into soap requires adding enough lye to give it a neutral to ''alkaline'' pH.