Most of us are likely to think of a science lab when we hear the term “chemical reaction.” In reality, nature is full of endless chemical reactions occurring all the time. We either just don’t see them, like the ones that take place in our own bodies all day long, or we don’t even think about them. But they’re out there, they’re happening, and some of them are more unpleasant than you might think. 

10. The Chlorine Smell In Pools is Actually a Reaction Between Chlorine and Things Like Pee

Have you ever taken a trip to the public pool and that chlorine smell was just so potent it almost made your eyes water as you approached? It’s like a sting in your nostrils and makes you think they must really take their pool cleanliness seriously if they’re adding so much chlorine to it. We have unfortunate news for you.

Chlorine doesn’t normally have a powerful smell at all. But it is a very reactive chemical and so, when it meets other compounds, it can produce a pungent and even dangerous chemical reaction. That smell from the public pool is one such reaction. 

The pool smell is not from chlorine itself but chloramines. You get chloramines when chlorine mixes with things like sweat, oils, cosmetics, and urine. This is the reason some pools tell you to shower before you swim, to remove many of these compounds from your skin. The urine is another matter. 

Even though it seems like that smell means more chlorine which means a cleaner pool, the opposite is true. When the disinfectant chlorine hits your sweat and pee it breaks down into the smelly chloramines which no longer work to clean a pool. So you may want to rethink a swim if you have a potent pool. 

9. A High School Student Lost Her Fingers to a Chemical Reaction in Art Class

Art class was, for many of us, the most fun class in school. You don’t necessarily need to think super hard and you get to be creative. Hard to go wrong with that. But it’s still possible for things to go very wrong. 

In 2007, an art class took a very wrong turn for a 16-year-old girl who was trying to make a sculpture of her hands. The plan was to put her hands in plaster of Paris to make a mold of the hands and then presumably fill the molds with whatever material she was going to sculpt with. Unfortunately, she misheard the teacher who told her to make a clay mold and then fill it with plaster. She was unaware of the chemical process of how plaster of Paris dries.

Like cement, plaster of Paris creates an exothermic reaction when water is added. The powder starts out as gypsum but then is heated, forcing moisture out. So when water is reintroduced, a reverse reaction occurs.

As the substance dries, the water molecules react with the plaster to create heat. With the girl’s hands fully immersed, the mixture heated to 60 C, or 140 F. By this time the plastic was too dry and too thickly packed for teachers to get her out in time. All she could do was endure the slow, steady burns.

By the time she was freed the damage was too severe and she ended up losing all but two of her fingers. 

8. Adipocere Is The Result of a Chemical Reaction Turning Body Fat Into a Waxy Substance In A Coffin

Have you ever thought about what happens to a corpse once it’s been buried? Most of us know that a body will rot and eventually only a skeleton remains, but the process of rotting is an interesting and off-putting one that has several stages. 

At some point in the process your body will produce a substance called adipocere, otherwise known as grave wax. As long as you have suitable conditions in which a body has moisture but little oxygen, the substance can form. 

When your adipose, or fat tissue, decomposes, it can form this waxy substance thanks to the hydrolysis of triglycerides into glycerin and free fatty acids. This is very similar to how we make soap. It gets the nickname thanks to the fact it will have a waxy texture at first but will crumble over time. That said, it can help preserve a body for years.

7. Pistachios Will Spontaneously Combust In the Right Circumstances

People seem to love pistachios. Americans eat 0.7 pounds of them each per year. That makes for a lot of nuts out there and, all things being equal, that’s potentially dangerous. Pistachios are vulnerable to a chemical reaction that can cause them to spontaneously combust.

Pistachios are one of the most dangerous nuts in the world and they need to be shipped and stored carefully. A room full of pistachios could suffocate you because, even after harvest, they absorb oxygen and give off carbon dioxide. 

Because pistachios have low water and high fat, they can be quite flammable. As the nuts absorb oxygen and give off CO2, they’re breaking fats down into fatty acids and this chemical reaction produces heat. If they get warm enough, the fat in the nuts becomes fuel and they can burst into flames. If you’re transporting millions of nuts together in shipping containers, you may ship a pistachio bomb as a result. 

6. Pit Stains Are Caused By a Reaction To Your Deodorant

The global deodorant market is worth nearly $70 billion so you can safely assume most people don’t want to stink or even look like they might stink with those telltale sweat stains. For most people this isn’t too big of an issue but for some people, especially when they wear white, it can be. Have you ever seen a dreaded yellow pit stain? It’s not a desirable thing for most people. But it’s also not technically caused by your sweat, either.

While it may seem like yellow stains are caused by poor hygiene or excess sweating, that’s not the case. Instead, it’s a chemical reaction caused by the deodorant some people choose to wear. Obviously it doesn’t happen to everyone but the aluminum in your deodorant and antiperspirant can react with proteins in your sweat to produce the yellowing agent that stains clothing. 

If it becomes an issue, using an antiperspirant made without aluminum might do the trick to make the stains go away. 

5. A Chemical Reaction Between Tin Foil and Lasagna Causes “Lasagna Cell”

Lasagna is an immensely popular food and with good reason, it’s delicious. It’s the most-loved pasta dish by Millennials, at least according to one survey. But it hides a secret danger most of us have never heard of. 

Lasagna needs to be stored in a glass or plastic dish or not covered with aluminum foil thanks to a chemical reaction called lasagna cell. In so many words, you risk turning your lasagna into a battery if you don’t.

Lasagna is a prime environment for galvanic corrosion if the dish you’re storing it in is made of metal other than aluminum. Because you have a salty solution working as an electrolyte in the form of the sauce, the lasagna will break down the aluminum in the foil and the molecules of foil act as an anode and will try to bond to the dish, which is now a cathode. 

In as little as a few hours you could notice holes in the foil if you have your lasagna stored in the fridge and tiny blobs of corroded aluminum on the surface of your meal. 

4. The Smell of Pennies Is Actually Your Own Odor After Reacting to Pennies

Have you ever smelled a penny and found the odor unusual or offensive? Before you blame that poor, mostly worthless coin you need to know that it’s not the penny’s fault. Pennies don’t smell, it’s just that they cause us to smell.

If you notice an unpleasant odor on a penny or your hands after handling them, it’s actually the result of a chemical reaction between the copper in the coin and oils in your own skin. The same thing happens when you handle iron or brass. Your body will produce different compounds in reaction to the contact with the metals, some that smell worse than others. 

Not everyone produces the same chemical compounds so what you smell after handling pennies could very well differ from what someone else smells. Regardless of how it manifests, what you think of as a metallic odor is just a misperception and it’s actually body odor. 

3. A Chemical Reaction Causes Beer, Weed, and Skunks to Smell Similar

When beer goes bad, we often call it skunky. This is because skunky beer is an unpleasant situation and if you get one that has gone skunky enough it actually reeks a bit like our smelly little mammal friend. That’s not a coincidence, either. The chemical reaction at play is in the same ballpark as what’s going on in a skunk’s hindquarters.

Beer gets skunky when it’s exposed to light. Light interacts with something called iso-alpha acids, which are released when hops are boiled in the brewing process. You want these normally as they’re part of the bitter flavor in beer. But light destroys them.

When they break down, they bind with other compounds in the beer that have sulfur in them and now we’re in skunk stink territory. The compound is called 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol or prenythiol. It’s also in weed and if it’s an especially potent or skunky weed, that’s what causes it.

2. Humans Cause Their Own Indoor Air Pollution

Air pollution has been a cause for concern for years now but usually when we talk about it we mean the air outside. It’s a global sort of concern caused by toxic chemicals being burned and pumped into the atmosphere, right? Well, yes. But that doesn’t mean the air in your house is doing a lot better. Turns out humans are polluting the indoor air, too.

Human skin interacts with chemicals in the air in your own home to produce its own sort of polluting haze. Normally, outdoors, the weather and UV rays take care of a lot of these chemicals but that can’t happen inside. Our bodies create what has been described as an “oxidation field.”

Oil in human skin can react with ozone to produce new compounds. Our bodies produce an oil called squalene. When this meets ozone, which is a compound that exists freely out in the world, it produces a compound that further reacts with ozone to make hydroxyl radicals. These can react to all sorts of things in your house and create toxic compounds.

Out in the wild, hydroxyl radicals are natural and helpful in the air. But in an enclosed space like your house they can be more dangerous. There are potential long-term health effects we can’t know about yet depending on what sort of reactions could occur in any home.

This isn’t a new thing, but it wasn’t until covid and concern over indoor air quality that scientists began inspecting the spaces in which we live and how healthy they are. 

1. Babies Produce a Chemical That Makes Women Aggressive But Does the Opposite to Men

Do you think it’s possible for a smell to change your behavior? The idea that you can use pheromones to do such a thing isn’t new, even though there’s not much evidence to suggest humans work that way. That said, there is some evidence that there are chemicals in body odor which can affect human aggression.

We’re not talking average armpit stink here, rather a chemical produced by babies. Hexadecanal is a compound produced in babies’ heads. Ever seen someone sniff a baby like it was a new car? That’s part of what they’re smelling. Research shows this compound reduces aggression in men but has the opposite effect on women, making them more aggressive. 

It’s believed that a reaction like this is a survival technique. If a baby’s smell makes the mother more aggressive, she may become more protective. Conversely, the father, being less aggressive, is less of a threat as a result. Other mammals have similar reactions to various odors.

Scientists are at it again. This time, they’re creating new viruses and bacteria in their laboratories. Scientists usually prefer altering already-existing or extinct bacteria and viruses to produce new strains that will defeat our immunity, vaccines, and drugs.

Sometimes, they prefer creating new viruses and bacteria from scratch. However, these strains are not always dangerous to humans even though they could be deadly to animals like mice and even to other bacteria.

SEE ALSO: 10 Viruses That Actually Help Humankind

10 Horsepox

Scientists at the University of Alberta have created horsepox, a lethal virus closely related to the equally deadly smallpox. Unlike smallpox, horsepox does not affect humans and is only fatal to horses. The scientists created the virus during a six-month study sponsored by pharmaceutical company Tonix. The researchers purchased DNA pieces via mail order and arranged them to form the virus. The entire project was not expensive. The DNA pieces used to create the virus cost just $100,000.

The study caused a dilemma at the time it was revealed. Other scientists were concerned that governments or even terrorists could use the knowledge to create smallpox virus for biological weapons. A smallpox epidemic could become deadly for us today. We no longer get vaccinated for it because we eradicated the disease in 1980.

The researchers clarified that they created the virus because they wanted to develop improved smallpox vaccines. Tonix later revealed that it had produced a smallpox vaccine with the horsepox virus. Other scientists say that the researchers could have extracted horsepox from wild horse populations instead of creating it from scratch. Tonix said they would have done just that if they had known they had natural access to the virus. However, lead researcher David Evans said they recreated the virus because Tonix would have been unable to commercialize the horsepox virus taken from the wild.^[1]

9 Black Death

Between 1347 and 1351, millions of Europeans were afflicted with a mysterious disease that killed over 50 million people. Today, we know this disease is the Black Death, which is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria. Although the Black Death is still around, it is not as potent as it used to be.

A few years ago, researchers from several schools, including the University of Tubingen in Germany and McMaster University in Canada, recreated the deadly bacteria from DNA samples extracted from the teeth of a victim who died during the plague. They got only 30 milligrams of the bacteria from the teeth, but that was enough to recreate it.

As a result, researchers confirmed the original bacteria’s relationship to the Black Death around today. Some scientists had claimed that the bacteria were of different strains, but they are now confirmed to be the same. The one we have around today only became less deadly after it mutated.^[2]

8 Polio

Like their counterparts at the University of Alberta, scientists at the State University of New York have created a deadly artificial virus by buying DNA pieces via mail order. This time, it is polio, and it is as potent as the natural one. Mice exposed to the artificial polio got sick just as they would have if exposed to natural polio.

The laboratory-created polio was controversial among scientists. The researchers who produced it had taken its code from databases available to almost anybody. Other researchers fear that people with ulterior motives could develop their own artificial polio, which is much easier to make than other dangerous viruses like smallpox.

Smallpox’s genetic code is 185,000 letters long while polio’s is just 7,741 letters long. Although we are already at the brink of eradicating polio, scientists fear that we will still need to be vaccinated against the disease because it could be recreated.^[3]

7 Mousepox

A few years ago, researchers at the Australian National University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) produced a deadly mutated strain of mousepox by mistake. Mousepox is another lethal virus that belongs to the same family as horsepox and smallpox.

The researchers were trying to develop birth control for mice at the time that they mistakenly created the virus. They inserted a gene that promoted the creation of interleukin 4 (IL-4) into mousepox, which they injected into some mice. The mice were vaccinated and were not supposed to be harmed by the mousepox.

Instead of making the mice infertile as researchers had expected, the weakened virus turned lethal and destroyed the immune systems of the mice, killing them in nine days. The new mousepox was so dangerous that it was resistant to vaccination. Half of the other vaccinated mice exposed to the mutated mousepox also died.

The researchers were so scared by their invention that they did not want to publish their findings. They even met with the Australian military to confirm if it was safe to publish.^[4] Scientists fear that human smallpox could also mutate and become deadlier if injected with IL-4. However, they are unsure because no one has tried it yet. We know it’s only a matter of time before some scientist does.

6 SARS 2.0

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a lethal virus. More than 700 people were killed during a SARS epidemic that infected 8,000 people in 29 countries between 2002 and 2003. Now, scientists have made it deadlier.

The new mutant SARS virus was created by a group of researchers led by Dr. Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina. They call it SARS 2.0. The researchers developed the virus by adding some protein to the naturally occurring SARS. SARS 2.0 is immune to vaccines and treatments used to cure the naturally occurring SARS virus.^[5]

The team said that the research was necessary because the natural SARS virus could mutate and become immune to our vaccines. By creating a deadlier and mutated virus, we could develop stronger vaccines that will save us from a more lethal SARS epidemic. That is, if the natural SARS ever mutates.

However, other scientists are concerned because the SARS 2.0 that is supposed to save us from a deadly SARS epidemic could start that epidemic if it ever escapes from the lab.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Mysterious Viruses

5 MERS-Rabies Virus Hybrid

Scientists have created a MERS-rabies hybrid virus. The idea is to use the virus to develop a vaccine that will protect us from both viruses. Rabies is a deadly disease that can be transmitted to humans through the bites of infected dogs that usually have the virus in their saliva.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a new virus that appeared in Saudi Arabia a few years ago. It is closely related to SARS and is spread from bats to camels and, finally, to humans. MERS infected 1,800 people at the time of its first epidemic and killed over 630. Its fatality rate is around 35 percent.

As we mentioned in the previous entry, SARS infected over 8,000 people during a 2003 epidemic but killed just over 700. Although SARS caused more deaths in absolute terms, it has a lower fatality rate than MERS. Only about 10 percent of SARS victims died. And for now, we do not have any vaccine for MERS.

To create the MERS-rabies hybrid, researchers took some proteins from the MERS virus and added it to rabies. They used the new virus to develop a new vaccine that made mice resistant to rabies and MERS. They believe that the vaccine can also be used for humans and camels at risk of getting MERS.^[6]

4 Phi-X174

Phi-X174 is another artificial virus we have produced in laboratories. It was created by researchers at the Institute of Biological Energy Alternatives in Rockville, Maryland. The researchers modeled the artificial virus after the natural phiX virus. PhiX is a bacteriophage, a category of viruses that infect and kill bacteria. However, it has no effect on humans.^[7]

The researchers created the artificial virus in 14 days, yet it resembles the natural virus so much that it is impossible to tell them apart. The researchers hope that the new virus is the first step in developing mutant and artificial bacteria that can be used for the benefit of man.

3 Unnamed Virus

Researchers from University College London and the National Physical Laboratory have created an unnamed virus that kills bacteria and behaves like a real virus. Like phi-X174, it is a bacteriophage but deadlier.

The unnamed virus attacks any bacteria around it. Within seconds, it breaks into smaller parts that attach and create holes on the bodies of the bacteria. The holes quickly become larger, forcing the bacteria to leak their contents. The bacteria die soon after.

Despite its scary potency, the unnamed virus is not dangerous to humans and did not attack human cells during tests. However, it could enter human cells just like natural viruses. Researchers hope the results will be used to treat and study bacterial diseases in humans. The virus could also be used to alter the human gene.^[8]

2 Bird Flu

Some Dutch scientists have created a mutant and deadlier version of the already-lethal bird flu. Natural bird flu is not easily transmitted among humans. However, the researchers altered it so that it could be. To test their new virus, the researchers exposed some ferrets to it. Ferrets were chosen because they had similar bird flu symptoms to humans.

Ten generations later, the already-changed virus mutated again and became airborne. Natural bird flu is not an airborne disease. The study was controversial in the science community. It became even more so when the Dutch researchers attempted to publish the process to create the deadly virus.^[9]

Although scientists fear that terrorists could use the study to produce a deadly biological weapon that could kill half the people in the world, the researchers involved say that the study was necessary to allow us prepare for a mutated bird flu epidemic.

1 H1N1 Virus

In 1918, the world witnessed the arrival of a deadly flu epidemic. This was the H1N1 virus. By the time it was over, up to 100 million people were dead. The flu caused blood to seep into the lungs of victims. They released blood from their noses and mouths before drowning in the blood inside their lungs.

The flu returned in 2009. But it was less lethal even though it was mutated and deadlier than it should have been. Scientist Yoshihiro Kawaoka took samples of the mutated strain that caused the 2009 epidemic and used it to create a deadlier strain that was resistant to vaccines. This strain was similar to the one that caused the 1918 epidemic.^[10]

Kawaoka was not planning to produce a more lethal version of the flu at the time. He only wanted to create the original version of the flu so that he could study how it mutated and was able to bypass our immunity. The deadly virus is stored in a lab and could become fatal if ever released.