I like the re-animation serum from Re-animator. I don’t remember what it was called.
Also, you gotta like solonite (or, sometimes, “solomonite”) from Plan 9 From Outer Space. It was a substance that could cause sunlight to explode, thus destroying the entire universe.
Not sure of the spelling, but it was called jonniphrene. It worked on both humans and Tenktonese. Oh, and lay of the specieist slurs. You wouldn’t want our extraterrestrial fellow citizens to call you “tert”, now would you?
At least in the Marvel Universe, Adamantium is a metal. I believe as it is naturally occuring, it would be considered an element.
Miraclo which was what gave Rex Tyler his hour of power as Hourman(DC Comics - Member of the Justice Society).
tetralubisol
Flubber. The best fictional chemical of all time!
Mithril, of course. A mithril and flubber car would be AWESOME.
Plutnium Nyborg, from Heavy Metal. Heh. just one bag, tho.
The virus whose name I forget from the Wild Cards series of books. It kills 90% of those who get it. 90% of the survivors are horribly disfigured in some way. The lucky 1% become ‘superheroes’ of some sort, based on their subconscious. VERY cool stories!
I’m sure there are plenty of others…
TDX, James Blish’s gravity-polarized (“two-dimensional”) explosive.
My personal favourite is Dune’s Spice Melange, which can extend life and boost prescient abilities! If breathed in a pure gas form, it can mutate you.
The virus was called … brace yourself, here … the Wild Card virus.
Not just stronger than steel, 500 times stronger than steel! Can you imagine the impact on human construction and technology if we had a substance like this?
Of course, the Skylark series also featured the mysterious metal known only as “X”. When plated around copper (or uranium in later books) and exposed to an X-ray source, all the copper (or uranium) in contact with the X metal got coverted from matter into energy. 'Twas as potent as antimatter, without havng to scrape together any actual antimatter.
Trellanstone. The Imperial Orb of Dragaera is made out of this.
Both of mine have already been mentioned. But I’ll say 'em again.
Chemical X is a positive BOON to the people of Townsville and our planet as a whole.
And adamantium is not only indestructible, but apparently cats go wild for the rich taste.
Ah-hah! But unless you can come up with any other fictional chemicals that haven’t been mentioned and are cooler than adamantium, then the thread’s a wash. Unless it were re-titled “favorite fictional substance?” which seems to vague and unsavory for the SDMB.
Definitely not an element, and not naturally occuring. Adamantium is a series of alloys. Adamant on the other hand, is a god-metal and may qualify. Uru as well.
What about mithral (note the “a”) and adamantite from the AD&D universe?
I don’t think it has a cool name, but Friar Laurence’s handy temporary death potion, from Romeo and Juliet. Its effects are described in Act Four, scene one:
[The Princess Bride]Inconceivable![/The Princess Bride]
You beat me to it, Lamia. Good one.
in Brave New World,
The hedonistic alphas were kept happy by liberal doses of Soma, Aldous Huxley’s wide spectrum prozac.
Sci-fi worldbuilding at
http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html
A new drug:
Mimezine, an empathogenic designer drug which creates the sense that the holograms are physically real.
Also not mentioned:
Illudium used notably in explosive space modulators.
I’ll go with duckmite and oxide of strombolium.
When I was a kid, I came up with a substance I called “solid friction.” It had a coefficient of friction that was practically infinite. (It was also, for all intents and purposes, indestructable, and clear like a sheet of plexiglass. And only one sample of it existed, which came from space; the secrets of its fabrication were never discovered.)