Fun Science

Sulfur Hexafluoride Is Significantly Denser Than Air Sulfur hexafluoride (also sulphur hexafluoride, SF6) is an inorganic substance, a heavy gas under normal conditions, which is 5 times heavier than air.

Perverted amusements of wealthy ladies of the 18th century In those days, rich women loved to mock maids or girls from lower society in every possible way. One of the most perverted and cruel amusements was the following: the ladies invited a maid to their room and chewed it to the bone. Then they grabbed her, spread her legs and put their feet right in...read more (18+)

Sarrus Linkage The mechanism converts a limited circular motion into a rectilinear one without the use of guideways. It consists of several articulated rectangular plates, with two of them remaining parallel, but capable of moving toward each other.

The way a black hole twists space👆🏻 A black hole is a region within cosmos with so much gravity that it absorbs everything around it, including light. However, the word combination "black hole" itself is just a cleverly invented designation. And it only caught on due to the fact that it's convenient. A hole — because once something gets there, it cannot get back out. And the black one is that the object itself does not emit anything or practically nothing.

💦Acoustic levitation California startup Simplistyk has invented a device to levitate water. The device is called "Levizen". It applies the principle of acoustic levitation: high-frequency sound waves indistinguishable by the ear make a drop of water literally hang in the air.

🐍"The Pharaoh's Serpent" The euphonious name hides a collective image of multiple chemical reactions in the process of which there is a multiple increase in the volume of the used reagents. During the reaction, the resulting substance increases, and it (the substance) wriggles like a snake. What a fascinating sight!

Murmuration (from Latin murmuratio "muttering, buzzing") This is how ornithologists call the association of birds (commonly starlings) in huge flocks, continuously changing their shapes into a variety of figures. An impressive natural phenomenon!

Fluorescein When exposed to ultraviolet light, the green dye fluorescein emits light in the visible range, a phenomenon called fluorescence.

Chemical Chameleon (NaOH, KMnO4 and sucrose)

The aurora borealis (northern lights) is a phenomenon of glow of the upper layers within the Earth's atmosphere, caused by the movement of charged particles of the solar wind in the magnetic field of the planet. Excited oxygen atoms cause red and green glow. Purple and invisible to the eye infrared radiation is caused by ionized nitrogen molecules. Hydrogen atoms can be the source of a weak red glow.

Magic? No, physics! The Leidenfrost Effect ☝🏻 That’s a physical phenomenon in which a liquid closer to the surface, hotter than the boiling point of the liquid, creates an insulating vapor layer that prevents the liquid from boiling rapidly. Due to this "repulsive force," the droplet floats above the surface rather than making physical contact with the hot surface.

The Elephant Toothpaste Experiment in Motion Potassium iodide (a colorless crystalline salt) reacted so violently with hydrogen peroxide that it literally pushed the products of the chemical reaction out of the flask.

Magnetic levitation of aluminum, copper and magnesium💡 Magnetic levitation is a technology, a method of lifting an object using a magnetic field alone. Magnetic pressure is used to compensate the acceleration of free fall or any other accelerations

The way a black hole twists space👆🏻 A black hole is a region within cosmos with so much gravity that it absorbs everything around it, including light. However, the word combination "black hole" itself is just a cleverly invented designation. And it only caught on due to the fact that it's convenient. A hole — because once something gets there, it cannot get back out. And the black one is that the object itself does not emit anything or practically nothing.

💦Acoustic levitation California startup Simplistyk has invented a device to levitate water. The device is called "Levizen". It applies the principle of acoustic levitation: high-frequency sound waves indistinguishable by the ear make a drop of water literally hang in the air.

Cellular Tropism This is the ability of cells to ensure the reproduction of certain viruses. It is determined by the complementarity (correspondence) of special cell receptors and virion antireceptors, as well as by the ability to implement other stages of virus reproduction.

How people lost their identity.. The photo shows a California prisoner, 1961, being prepared for a frontal lobotomy (amputation of part of the brain). The procedure was used to applied to people whose actions were considered immoral by society. This is how the state tried to control problematic groups, such as racial minorities and homosexuals.

Enormous achievement of 2021: The gene editor As in 2020, CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology was named among the major achievements. Why was it celebrated in 2021 as well? The fact is that, according to scientists, successful experiments on animals do not yet give a reason to apply the technology to humans. Here, the requirements are quite different. And yet this year such an operation was performed. With the help of CRISPR-Cas9 the gene causing a rare severe disease - transthyretin amyloidosis - was successfully edited for the first time. This work has been called a medical breakthrough. Another study by biologists is noted. They created hybrid human and macaque embryos that lived outside the body for up to 20 days. Such embryos are called chimeric ones. Scientists need them to study the early stages of human development, model the future course of diseases and study new drugs, and, in the future, to create potentially transplantable cells, tissues and organs.

A burnt match and a magnet Only those matches will be attracted that contain in their composition, the so-called iron minium — iron oxide (Fe₂O₃), which gives the match head its characteristic dark red color.