Valence Electrons

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal #807

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Explanation: Valence electrons are in the outermost shell of atoms, and they are vital for creating molecular bonds with other atoms. Hydrogen atoms only have one valence electron (the correct answer in the test) - and what's more, they can only have a maximum of two electrons in their outermost shell.

Basically, our hapless guy phrased his wish in a way that made the genie to give all hydrogen atoms two electrons in its outermost shell instead of one - which meant that hydrogen suddenly became unable to form any molecular bonds at all, like helium. This had the result that all molecules with hydrogens in their structure sponaneously came apart - and there are a lot of those, starting with water.

BOOM indeed.