During his life, Nobel was most famous for his experimentations with nitroglycerine, a highly explosive and unstable liquid.

BBC: Sweden��s Nobel gift to the world

These drugs, known as PDE-5 inhibitors, can cause side effects like headaches, nasal congestion and vision problems -- and they can have dangerous interactions with the heart medication nitroglycerine.

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The diatom skeletons of which the mineral is composed are able to soak up huge quantities of oily materials such as lanolin and nitroglycerine, in the same way that a sponge soaks up water.

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The military uses similar chemicals in its rockets, only it gets to spice up the mix a bit by adding nitroglycerine-based explosives to the fuel, making them about 20% more powerful than sophisticated hobby engines.

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Alfred Nobel was tasked with figuring out how to stabilise nitroglycerine to make it safe enough to handle, wrote author Burton Feldman in The Nobel Prize : A History of Genius , Controversy and Prestige.

BBC: Sweden��s Nobel gift to the world