Dihydrogen monoxide parody Dihydrogen monoxide parody The dihydrogen monoxide parody involves calling water by the unfamiliar chemical name "dihydrogen monoxide" (DHMO), or "hydroxylic acid" in some cases, and listing some of water's well-known effects in a particularly alarming manner, such as accelerating corrosion and causing suffocation. The parody often calls for dihydrogen monoxide to be banned, regulated, and labeled as dangerous. It illustrates how a lack of scientific literacy and an exaggerated analysis can lead to misplaced fears. The parody gained renewed popularity in the late 1990s when a 14-year-old student, Nathan Zohner, collected anti-DHMO petitions for a science project about gullibility. The
Dihydrogen complex separations > 1 Å are better described as dihydride complexes (see figure). The usual method for characterization is H NMR spectroscopy. The magnitude of spin-spin coupling, "J", is a useful indicator of the strength of the bond between the hydrogen and deuterium in HD complexes. For example, "J" is 43.2 Hz in HD but 33.5 Hz in W(HD)(CO)(PPr). Dihydrogen complexes typically have shorter H-spin-lattice relaxation times than the corresponding dihydrides. An ideal if nontrivial method of characterization of dihydrogen complexes is neutron diffraction. Neutrons interact strongly with hydrogen atoms, which allows one to infer their location in a crystal. In