You are invited to view Patti Staggs's photo album: Chemistry and Biochemistry Picnic 2011

"So what causes a battery to just blow up?

Dr. Mike Mueller, chemistry department head at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, believes the problem occurs when alkaline batteries are exposed to an electrical current.

'You end up forming hydrogen gas and you're forming hydrogen gas in a sealed metal container,' Mueller explained. 'Any time you generate gas in a sealed metal container, that's called a bomb, and that's literally what happens. The pressure will build up until the casing bursts, and then the highly corrosive material will leak out and can be quite a mess.'

That's why most alkaline batteries have warnings - albeit tiny ones - telling consumers they could explode. Those warnings instruct not to insert an alkaline battery the wrong direction, expose it to high heat, or charge a non-rechargeable battery. All of those mistakes can prompt explosion."

See the full version of Dr. Mueller's talk on the web at  Channel 13.