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 some cases, hydrogen ligands are usefully characterized by X-ray crystallography, but often the presence of metals, which strongly scatter X-rays, complicates the analysis. The triangular MH subunit has six normal modes of vibration, one of which is mainly of ν character. In free H, this very strong bond absorbs at 4300 cm, whereas in dihydrogen complexes the frequency drops to around 2800 cm. Two preparation methods involve the direct reactions with H gas. The first entails the addition of H to an unsaturated metal center, as originally reported for W(CO)(P-i-Pr)(H). In such cases, the unsaturated complex in fact features an