# Deadly Ciphogene Gas **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 10, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868 "2013-08-10T14:14:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/1 "2013-08-10T14:14:17Z")
I decided to look up _ciphogene_, the name of the fumigant that Nero Wolfe uses in his orchid greenhouse. Search engines kept connecting me to listings for _iPhone_, the cloest they could get to it, I guess. This made me suspect that the name, like many of the brand names used in wolfe’s books (like the _Heron_ sedan archie drives, or the _Marley_ 0.38 he carries), is simply made up. It might just be one that’s so old (the story it’s in appeared in 1942) that it’s fallen out of use. But the internet seems to be pretty good at ferreting out old brands. I was leaning toward the “made up” explanation. According to O. McBride’s _Stout Fellow: A Guide Through Nero Wolfe’s World_, p. 113 > [@](#): > > Incidentally, there is no chemical named Ciphogene. Rex made it up. He gives no sort of evidence or reference, but it seems likely.You can find it here: > **[Stout Fellow](https://books.google.com/books?id=-W7LI4BKw7YC&pg=PA113&lpg=PA113&dq=ciphogene&source=bl&ots=P7bV8OeNDs&sig=ANUgRoiT89Gpw47B50MQ-w-r2tM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mUcGUrLXKYW0ygHPsIDIAQ)** > > Are you one of the millions who has spent many pleasant hours reading aboutNero Wolfeconverting the calories from his gourmet dining (albeit grudgingly) into mental energy to solve a murder? If you have traipsed through that morass of neuroses,... I was surprised, therefore, to find Ciphogene popping up elsewhere. In Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s classic SF novel **The Mote in God’s Eye** , Ciphogene is the name of the fumigant gas used to kill off unwanted lifeforms. It’s mentioned in the Battle with the Brownies, where canisters of the gas are used against them. I suppose you could rationalize it as a fumigant named after a fictional one, but the point is that there’s only one source for the name. So Niven and Pournelle are apparently Nero wolfe fans. I didn’t know it when i first read the book, because hadn’t read any Rex Stout at that time. I wouldn’t have caught it now, if not for the internet search engines. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/2 "2013-08-10T14:27:03Z")
I was always somewhere between puzzled, irritated and amused at Stout’s use of bogus product names - I guess I have the sense that he should have had to use such side-steps in the era his writing began. I’m not surprised NivenPournelle were influenced and used it, for some reason. There are other fictional poison/deadly chemicals that have jumped authors and universes. The “iocane power” from Princess Bride has shown up in a few other stories, and “polydichloric euthiminal” was originally a psychosis-inducing drug in the Sean Connery B flick _Outland_. Next time you’re watching T2, look closely at the yellow barrels of explosive that Dyson sets off… yep, PDE. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/3 "2013-08-11T23:30:12Z")
I only saw _Outland_ once, on a plane. I was flying Oceanic Airlines. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/4 "2013-08-12T01:00:08Z")
You mean there really wasn’t a Heron automobile? Dang, I’ve been searching for a coupe with a retractable beak for such a long time… ---
**Author:** ![4corners](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/e9a140/32.png) [@4corners](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4corners)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/5 "2016-05-18T20:41:59Z")
And then there is the notorious Cheesy Poofs and Clowny Cakes ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/6 "2016-05-18T20:57:47Z")
The name Ciphogene may have been partly drawn from [phosgene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene). > [@Jackmannii](#): > > You mean there really wasn’t a Heron automobile? Would you settle for a Hennway? ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/7 "2016-05-23T15:38:55Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > The name Ciphogene may have been partly drawn from [phosgene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene). > > Would you settle for a Hennway? If you use ciphogene on a Hennway will it send more paramedics? ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/8 "2016-05-23T15:46:55Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > The name Ciphogene may have been partly drawn from [phosgene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene). > > Would you settle for a Hennway? How about a Heisenberg? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/9 "2016-05-23T16:39:22Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > How about a Heisenberg? I had one once. Every time I looked at the speedometer, I got lost. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/10 "2016-05-23T17:06:28Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I had one once. Every time I looked at the speedometer, I got lost. There’s your problem, you’re supposed to entangle your speedometer with another one then you can tunnel between the two. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/11 "2016-05-23T18:22:36Z")
I remember once time the X-Men were fighting some foe, and the foe attacked them with ‘Cellectric Rays.’ I tried looking up ‘cellectric’ in the dictionary, but there wasn’t an entry at the time. (No that there is now, either.) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/12 "2016-05-23T19:30:30Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > The name Ciphogene may have been partly drawn from [phosgene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene). > > ? Or hydrocyanic-acid gas, which is commonly used. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/13 "2016-05-23T19:56:02Z")
There’s also Asimov’s “thiotimoline”, a peculiar four-dimensional chemical compound he first described in a spoof paper he wrote as practice for his doctoral dissertation. It has, appropriately enough, made appearances elsewhere over time, in short stories by several other authors. In particular, in Spider Robinson’s “Mirror Mirror, Off the Wall”, the mirror-image stereoisomer of thiotimoline from a mirror universe apparently has chemical bonds that extend to other universes, rather than into the past and future. ---
**Author:** ![wyjw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f6c823/32.png) [@wyjw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wyjw)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deadly-ciphogene-gas/665868/14 "2023-11-12T19:13:14Z")
Odd also in that Stout could be precisely on the nose about the smallest of details when he so chose. In “Die Like a Dog” for example, Nero Wolfe spent one lunch arguing the case that the Basenji was an older breed of dog than the Afghan Hound, a conclusion modern science seems to back up, given that the genome of the Basenji appears to reach further back than that of the Afghan Hound.