Molecular moments in pop culture

Benzene on the big screenIt’s often a surprising delight when molecules crop up in pop culture. Earlier this year, while sitting in a theater watching the UK-based zombie thriller 28 Years Later, this horror-loving Newscriptster was tickled when benzene got a shout out.Benzene’s big moment comes when Erik, a marooned Swedish soldier (played by Edvin Ryding), has just rescued the main characters—Isla (Jodie Comer) and Spike (Alfie Williams)—from people infected with a rage virus, who violently chase the mother-son duo into an abandoned gas station’s convenience store.As soon as Isla enters the building, she starts choking on a layer of purplish gas swirling at eye level. Still, the two heroes push forward, desperate to escape their enraged pursuers. Then, when all hope seems lost, a stranger—Erik—opens a skylight, shouts to “get down,” and fires his rifle into the store at the infected. The building explodes. The infected burn to a crisp. Erik, Isla, and Spike walk away shaken but unscathed.“What happened?” asks a stunned Spike.“Benzene. Vaporized. Built up over the years,” Erik confidently replies.It was a serious moment, but this Newscriptster couldn’t help but chuckle, appreciating the artistic license taken by representing a colorless gas denser than air as a buoyant, swirling purple haze. Then a question arose: Small amounts of benzene are present in gasoline, but could the molecule really be blamed for such an explosion?Gasoline is made of hydrocarbons of varying lengths, including n-paraffins, isoparaffins, cyclic paraffins, olefins, and aromatics, says Suzanne Golisz, a petroleum chemist who has