Professional chemists analyzed the key moments of the TV series Breaking Bad

Right before the release of the latest episode of Breaking Bad, Donna Nelson, a professor of chemistry at the University of Oklahoma and the series' scientific consultant, spoke to GigaOm about why meth won't actually turn out blue and what the best way is to quietly get rid of a corpse.

School chemistry teacher Walter White, better known as Heisenberg, and his assistant, aspiring “chef” Jesse Pinkman, are the main characters of the popular TV series “Breaking Bad.” The series became popular not so much because of the provocative theme (the heroes get rich by manufacturing hard drugs), but rather because of the powerful dialogues and impressive situations from which Heisenberg extricates himself thanks to his knowledge of chemistry.

A new episode of Breaking Bad appeared on torrents tonight. If you haven't downloaded it yet, you should wonder why you even live?

— Yaroslav Sviridov (@yasviridov) August 12, 2013

Having timed the release of the second part of the latest season of Breaking Bad, the author of GigaOm decided to figure out how true some of the iconic moments of the series are from a scientific point of view, and took comments from proven chemists: chemistry professor from the University of Oklahoma Donna Nelson, chairman of the department of chemistry at the University of New Mexico Stephen Cabaniss and the head of the chemistry department at the University of Oregon, Michael Haley.

Beware, this article contains a lot of spoilers and footnotes to Wikipedia.

really Does meth turn out bright blue?

, sold in pharmacies, was used as a base According to the plot, White and Pinkman initially produced methamphetamine from improvised means: the drug pseudoephedrine , but in this way they could not increase production volume - buying the drug in too large quantities looks suspicious. By the end of the first season, they had switched to using the pesticide methylamine commercial instead of pseudoephedrine, which produced the blue color that became Heisenberg's trademark product. As White states in the series, the bright blue color was achieved due to the exceptional quality and purity of his product.

Nelson states that switching from pseudoephedrine to methylamine has virtually no effect on the color of methamphetamine: “Sometimes some very pure crystals appear slightly bluish to us because our minds try to compare them with a common low-quality product that has a yellow color. The color change is unlikely to have affected Heisenberg's position in the market: the show simply associates the color blue with his powerful product. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, colored meth is typically flavored.”

Why does hydrofluoric acid eat through a ceramic bath, but does not touch the walls of a plastic barrel?

One of the show's most disgusting scenes occurs in the second episode of the first season. Jesse does not follow Mr. White's instructions, and instead of dissolving drug dealer Emilio's body with hydrogen fluoride in a plastic barrel, he uses the bathtub in his house to do it. Hydrofluoric acid corrodes the walls of the bathroom, burns through the interfloor ceiling, and the entire contents of the bath, along with itself, fall through the resulting hole onto the first floor.

Haley confirms the effectiveness of hydrogen fluoride: “Ceramic materials are composed of many silicon atoms. Fluorine forms a strong compound with silicon, so hydrofluoric acid will “eat through” ceramics, glass - any material that contains a lot of silicon.”

Nelson doubts that this time Walter White chose the most effective solution: “Usually the flesh is dissolved using a base , most often hydroxide of soda, that is, an alkali solution. It is often used to clear clogged pipes, as well as to dispose of accident victims. An alkali solution in this case would be much safer: unlike soda hydroxide, hydrofluoric acid has toxic fumes. Although Jesse was wearing a mask when he began the operation, the fumes would have spread throughout the house and by the time the acid had eaten through the bathtub, most of the exposed surfaces should have been destroyed."

How powerful is a mercury fulminate explosion ?

In the sixth episode of the first season, Heisenberg visits a major drug lord named Tuco. Jesse has just beaten up Jesse and robbed him of a batch of meth, and Heisenberg sends him a new batch, supposedly as a gesture of goodwill. When Tuco refuses to pay, Walter White makes a move: it turns out that the bag contains not meth, but explosive crystalline fulminate, which the resourceful school teacher immediately puts into action. The explosion shatters the glass, but does not harm the drug dealers in the room.

Cabaniss: “Mercury fulminate makes a very loud and sharp sound when it explodes, and therefore is often used for all sorts of dangerous pranks. For example, a small amount can be applied to the toilet rim and a loud bang will be heard when the victim lowers it. I wouldn't carry it in my pocket because it could detonate from any shaking. It’s strange that Walt’s “performance” didn’t cause the rest of the mercury fulminate in the bag on the table to explode.”

Hayley: “Let this exaggeration remain on the conscience of the show's creators. An explosion on the scale depicted in the series would have left people deaf or severely injured. You'd have to be a fool to put such a package in your pocket, especially considering the scale of destruction shown in the series."

Nelson: "In real life, the package containing Walter's modified chemical would have detonated much earlier than planned, and with much more severe consequences - it is unlikely that anyone would have survived in that room."

Is it possible to make a thermite mixture from a “ magic screen ” and burn through a lock with it?

In the final episode of the first season, Jesse and Walt sneak into an industrial warehouse to steal a barrel of methylamine. The entrance to the warehouse is locked with a powerful lock, but Walt burns it with thermite mixture (burning temperature 2300-2700 °C). The chemist again finds a solution in the means at hand: he buys a large number of children’s “magic screens” for drawing and extracts aluminum chips from them, from which the thermite mixture is made.

Nelson: “Aluminum dust is, of course, the main component of the thermite mixture. But Walt and Jesse could easily buy a large volume of this dust if they simply walked into a hardware store; we estimate that they would have to break about 200 screens to fill the TV bowl."

Cabaniss: “The thermite reaction actually melts the metal and can be used for welding. This is one of the favorite demonstrations for chemistry teachers, myself included - sparks, smoke, flames, etc., but in a controlled, non-explosive style. I don’t know why more people don’t carry aluminum dust with them to open locks.”

Nelson: "Walt and Jesse needed to move away from the door, they wouldn't be able to look into the flames of the fire without special eye protection, and the door wouldn't cool enough to handle in a short period of time."

By the way, regarding the latest episode: the well-known infographics site visual.ly released an analysis of Twitter reaction to the latest episode (the ninth episode of the fifth season). Using the tweet intensity graph, it's easy to identify the most intense moments of the episode.

Time to cook
Nikita Likhachev,
TJournal

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