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Yoruichi-san
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Disappointed that Prof. Templeton's guest lecture had been canceled due to an incident involving a large animal amidst the sakura blossoms, Y-san decided to take the time to check out a lead she had gotten from Police Chief Leroy on IETNAT. Apparently, there had been a series of murders in which the assailant threw an incendiary device through the windows of his victims and blew them up. According to Police Chief Leroy, an anonymous tip pointed the finger of suspicion at a student working in the Biology Building.

Upon entering the building, Y-san's ears were greeted by an all too familiar sound...screaming. She looked up to see her friend Woon, who was working as a Teaching Assistant for the Biology Department, running towards her. Being used to this by now, she stopped him and addressed him in a calm, resigned voice, "What's wrong now?"

Woon paused just long enough to catch his breath, then blurted out "It's Vic! There was an explosion in the lab he was working in. Someone attacked him!"

After sending Woon to call an ambulance and the police, Y-san headed over to the lab in question. There was indeed evidence of an explosion in the lab. The floor of the lab was strewn with metal beakers, spatulas, stirring rods, clamps, small lighters, and other lab instruments. The side wall was paneled with posters of DNA models. Propped against the back wall were heavy, stable, pressurized tanks of helium, argon, and liquid nitrogen. Leaning against a burnt lab bench was whom she guessed to be Vic. Frowning at what she saw, she stepped over to him.

Seeing Y-san, the injured Vic's eyes widened. "Thank goodness you're here!" he cried. "Someone threw something through the window." He pointed towards the open window with a burnt hand.

As Y-san studied the surrounding more closely, her frown grew deeper. A few minutes later, Campus Police arrived. Y-san left Vic's side and walked over to them and whispered "Get Police Chief Leroy."

When Police Chief Leroy arrived on the scene, before he could utter a word, Y-san gave him her usual enigmatic grin, and declared "Here's your killer for you."

After the suspect was in custody, the Police Chief, flipping over the reports, turned to Y-san with a confused look on his face. "Okay, I see why you suspected Vic, but I still don't understand," he admitted. "The only things in the lab were the usual harmless lab equipment and non-volatile gases."

"Exactly." Y-san said. "He was trying to clear himself by setting himself as a target. He can't be outside throwing the incendiary device in and inside as the victim at the same time."

The Police Chief shook his head vehemently. "Yes, but I still don't see how he caused the explosion..."

Edit: Terminology ;P

Edited by Yoruichi-san
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Vic's clothings may be too clean to be exposed to an explosion in a room???

not a victim, but an arsonist would have a burnt hand???

No, he had more than just a burnt hand...as the Police Chief noted, there was definitely an explosion in the room.

Edit: For those of you new to my mysteries, the key is not to get caught up in the wording (I can be terrible at wording things) but to accept the facts and try to figure out the method.

Edited by Yoruichi-san
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No, he had more than just a burnt hand...as the Police Chief noted, there was definitely an explosion in the room.

Edit: For those of you new to my mysteries, the key is not to get caught up in the wording (I can be terrible at wording things) but to accept the facts and try to figure out the method.

A simple electrolysis could get gas Oxygen at 1 electrod and gas Hydrogen at another electrod.

Gas Hydrogen explodes

Gas Oxygen helps in burning

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Clever, but by "things of that sort" I meant wires, voltages sources, etc...the stuff you would need to create the circuit...;P

Vic put the liquid nitrogen in a bottle and quickly closed it. Later he heat it up by Bunsen burner, and cause the explosion ?

The burnt hand is a cold burnt while handling liquid nitrogen?

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inert and burned.

implying chemically inert substances and an overcooked hand.

Nitrogen is chemically inert; but as Woon points out, LN2 is not physically inert.

Burned hand suggests heat, but needn't; frost damage is a burn of another type.

So I'd agree with Woon's answer.

Wouldn't even need heat: just seal and allow to warm to room temp.

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Vic put the liquid nitrogen in a bottle and quickly closed it. Later he heat it up by Bunsen burner, and cause the explosion ?

The burnt hand is a cold burnt while handling liquid nitrogen?

Good thinking, but the lab bench was burnt too...sorry, just included the burnt hand for story description purposes, not meant to imply that the rest of him wasn't burnt...;)

There was definitely a fiery explosion... ;P

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inert and burned.

implying chemically inert substances and an overcooked hand.

Nitrogen is chemically inert; but as Woon points out, LN2 is not physically inert.

Burned hand suggests heat, but needn't; frost damage is a burn of another type.

So I'd agree with Woon's answer.

Wouldn't even need heat: just seal and allow to warm to room temp.

Very good points...I can tell some horror stories about LN2 'bombs' ;P

But I hope the burnt lab bench that was also mentioned will steer the answers in the direction I was thinking of...

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Well, there's a lighter and stuff on the floor, so after stirring up a mix of chemical stuff, the dude knew it would explode and just set it on fire?

And if there have been murders in which the guy "blew people up", that's pretty different than an explosion that just burns someone. He wasn't killed, he didn't seem that badly injured. Do you even work with explosive stuff in a chemical lab? Because if you don't, then he's definitely busted. The guy was trying to hurt himself, not kill himself, and succeeded.

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Well, there's a lighter and stuff on the floor, so after stirring up a mix of chemical stuff, the dude knew it would explode and just set it on fire?

And if there have been murders in which the guy "blew people up", that's pretty different than an explosion that just burns someone. He wasn't killed, he didn't seem that badly injured. Do you even work with explosive stuff in a chemical lab? Because if you don't, then he's definitely busted. The guy was trying to hurt himself, not kill himself, and succeeded.

Nope, as Bonanova pointed out, I was trying to stress in the OP that there wasn't any particularly explosive chemicals placed in the room...just the stuff mentioned and stuff that is normal and ubiquitous on earth...;P

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Well, in lab safety, you shouldn't have an open window because harmful fumes might escape. The window was open, not broken... so if Vic was a student, he should have known not to open the window...

Note that air is also a catalyst

Is it necessary to know what was in the beaker or what kind of 'lighters' there are

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Note that air is also a catalyst

Is it necessary to know what was in the beaker or what kind of 'lighters' there are

Good thinking...you're going in the right track, although it wasn't a catalyst...all the chemicals needed are stated in the problem, no extra chemicals were hidden in the beaker...;P

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Mayne i have an idea - that is not on track, I was not thinking chemical in the typical sense of labortory cocktails

If I post too musch then its close to my own puzzle that needs a fine tune - so Im letting someone else give it a shop - Was there a bithday involved ?

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Sorry for leaving you guys hanging...been away...

Anyways, the point about the lab bench is that you can't cold burn a lab bench...so it was definitely a fiery explosion...

The point of pointing out that there was nothing particular in the room that was flammable/explosive is to make you think...there is something ubiquitous on earth that is highly flammable, and if condensed in a pure form, can be explosive ;P

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The point of pointing out that there was nothing particular in the room that was flammable/explosive is to make you think...there is something ubiquitous on earth that is highly flammable, and if condensed in a pure form, can be explosive ;P

something to do with DNA? it does have pretty much all the elements u need, like sulphur. but i dunno how it would be condensed into a pure form...

oxygen is explosive. and metal spatulas could be used for electrolysis, using the mains as a current source

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oxygen is explosive. and metal spatulas could be used for electrolysis, using the mains as a current source

something to do with DNA? it does have pretty much all the elements u need, like sulphur. but i dunno how it would be condensed into a pure form...

Your second one is on the right track...but there were no wires/plugs/etc as mentioned before to allow circuit creation...you need to use other things in the room...;P

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Although there are no batteries or mains connections in the room, could electrolysis be undertaken by inserting a cathode & anode of different metals into a natural battery cell such as a potato or other fruit/vegetbles? Electrons can flow in a potato (or similar) due to the presence of Phosphoric acid within it. I know there is phosphate in each nucleotide of DNA, but that about as far as my limited chemistry can go. :( Probably on the wrong track, but this is an interesting puzzle!

Edited by Clairey
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