I can't believe I've missed all the talk from actual chemists as to whether this whole "liquid explosives" things has any validity. Or has there been any? (I'm thinking no).
The idea of this latest "plot" appears to be that "terrorists" can somehow smuggle the ingredients of powerful explosives, disguised as Coca Cola or Jello onto an airplane, mix them in flight and KA-BOOM!
This appears to be impossible as far as I can tell.
We all "know" thanks to movies like "Die Hard With a Vengeance" that all you have to do is mix the red stuff with the clear stuff and you get something so powerful that a pinhead full can blow up a chair.
Nuh-uh.
As far as I can tell (thanks to Wikipedia), there are about half a dozen possible "Liquid Explosives" and most of those actually have to dry to a crystalline form before they are dangerous. One of them is Acetone Peroxide, which is made by mixing acetone with hydrogen peroxide and a catalyst at temperatures under 10 degrees centigrade (about 50 F). So really all we need to do is look for people carrying large amounts of hair bleach, nail polish remover and a really big air conditioner onto an airplane and boy have we got a terrorist! My God! Where's Angelyne? (never mind, L.A. joke.)
Nitro Glycerine is another possible "liquid Explosive" but that's far more likely to blow up when your bag slides down the conveyor belt after the x-ray rather than during flight. Or if you sneeze while queueing up for the flight.
There are few others, but all of them require complex processing that can't be done in the seat of an airplane or in the lavatory, "Please stop knocking on the door! I'm pouring nitric acid into glycerin in here! And I'm about to pass out from the fumes!"
Now it seems to me that the whole story here is that either A: there really are powerful liquid explosives that can easily be disguised as common potables or foodstuffs and the terrorists have sophisticated bottling and canning facilities capable of manufacturing fake bottles of Coke and Gerber's baby food that can safely contain highly volatile and dangerous "Liquid Explosives" in disguise that can be quickly and easily mixed in flight with no tell-tale odors or activities, or, B: This is a lot of hooey designed for political theater to keep us all scared and voting republican.
It also seems to me that a responsible government would have reputable chemists on the air explaining why the hype is nothing to worry about and a sealed bottle of Poland Springs water is perfectly safe to carry on to a flight.
But I'm not a chemist. Am I missing something?