I went to work at a friend’s company. He was showing off an exotic breed of dog he’d brought back from China. The dog’s nails contained some chemical that reacted vigorously with metals.
Later we went out to a restaurant with a few coworkers, and at the table he demonstrated a battery he’d developed by synthesizing the chemical from the dog’s nails. The battery could only be recharged a few times, but it stored a substantial amount of energy and could be discharged at a very high rate. We were discussing all of the potential applications for the battery. He passed it around, and we discovered one of the drawbacks.
It seemed that as the battery discharged, it became physically softer. One of my coworkers squeezed the partially discharged battery too hard, and it burst, showering us with goop. The goop burned a bit, and we knew that water would make it worse, so we were desperately trying to figure out how to safely remove it when I awakened.