1.Complicatic Acid
This molecule didn't get its name because it was complicated to make, rather from the plant Stereum complicatum from which it was isolated.
2.Ethyl Lactate
This is another standard undergraduate chemistry joke, based around the fact that Ethyl sounds like a common female name. "How do you make Ethyl lactate...?" Other names involving "Ethyl" such as Ethyl palpitate, Ethyl fornicate and the spinster Ethyl celibate also make good jokes, but unfortunately the corresponding acids (palpitic, fornic and celibatic) are unknown.
3.Performic Acid
An actor's favourite chemical? As you might expect from a per-acid, it's a very strong oxidising agent, and always puts on a great per-formance!
4.Gibberelic Acid
Gibberelic acid isn't a psychotropic drug that makes you gibber insanely like a monkey...it's actually one of a number of gibberelins, which are plant hormones which control various aspects of plant growth.
5.dUMP
dUMP is the acronym for 2'-deoxyuridine-5'-monophosphate, and is an RNA transcription subunit - or a bit of the thing that makes proteins, and is one of the building blocks of DNA. dUMP is a deoxygenated form of RUMP, which is another of the bases found in RNA.
6.Small-breasted-dog
Yes, it really is called that, but in Spanish! The molecule is actually named 'Perrotetina' which literally means "small-breasted-dog" (Perro=dog, tetita=small breast). The molecule gets its name from the plant from whence it is extracted, Hepatic Radula perrotetti
7.Sandwicensin
John Montagu, The Fourth Earl of Sandwich, was a notorious gambler who would often go from pub to pub in London on gambling marathons. To satisfy his hunger while continuing to gamble, he would order slices of meat between two pieces of bread. Thus, was the sandwich born. But how about "Sandwicensin"? As a newly identified cytotoxin, isolated from a soggy old sponge at that, we guess that it must be somewhat less than appetizing!
8.Magic Acid
'Magic Acid' is the name given to one of the strongest of the inorganic 'superacids'. It is made by mixing together antimony pentafluoride (SbF5) and fluorosulphonic acid (HSO3F), and it is so strong (pKa = -20) that it is capable of protonating even saturated alkanes, like methane, to produce carbonium ions.
9.SEX
SEX is the official abbreviation of sodium ethyl xanthate, which is a flotation agent used in the mining industry.
10.DAMN
DAMN is the acronym for diaminomaleonitrile, which is a particularly a molecule containing lots of cyanide groups.
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