"The idea that this universal solvent is like the blood of the xenomorph in the Alien films, a universal corrosive, need not be true though the deductive reasoning put forward by JDP is pleasing. It is possible to argue that this universal solvent acts on different materials depending on how concentrated it is. So for example it doesn't act on glass but at a certain concentration will work on gold, at a lesser concentration on iron but not gold etc. Obviously this has no chemical basis and I am not a chemist."