When consulting manuals, electricians, online sources, etc.,
they always instruct you to handle halogen light bulbs with
gloves.
The "explanation" that usually accompanies this statement is
that oils and salts from a bare hand can "react" with the
surrounding glass/quartz, owing to the fact that halogen bulbs are
much hotter than ordinary ones. These reactions would cause weak
spots in the quartz (or in some versions of the story, the
filament), decreasing the lifetime of the bulb.
Is there any...