"most extreme" option. Sure, we've all heard stories about magnets strong enough to injure children from the inside and acids that will pass through your hands in a matter of seconds, but there are even more "extreme" versions of these.
1. The blackest matter known to man
What happens if you stack the edges of carbon nanotubes on top of each other and alternate layers of them? The result is a material that absorbs 99.9% of the light that hits it. The microscopic surface of the material is uneven and rough, which refracts light and is also a poor reflective surface. After that, try using carbon nanotubes as superconductors in a specific order, which makes them excellent light absorbers, and you'll get a real black storm. Scientists are seriously puzzled by the potential uses of this substance, since, in fact, light is not “lost”, the substance could be used to improve optical devices such as telescopes and even be used for solar cells operating at almost 100% efficiency.
2. The most flammable substance
Lots of things burn at an astonishing rate, such as styrofoam, napalm, and that's just the beginning. But what if there was a substance that could set the earth on fire? On the one hand, this is a provocative question, but it was asked as a starting point. Chlorine trifluoride has the dubious reputation of being a horribly flammable substance, even though the Nazis believed the substance was too dangerous to work with. When people who discuss genocide believe that their purpose in life is not to use something because it is too lethal, it supports careful handling of these substances. They say that one day a ton of the substance spilled and a fire started, and 30.5 cm of concrete and a meter of sand and gravel burned out until everything calmed down. Unfortunately, the Nazis were right.
3. The most poisonous substance
Tell me, what would you least like to get on your face? This could well be the deadliest poison, which would rightfully take 3rd place among the main extreme substances. Such a poison is indeed different from what burns through concrete, and from the strongest acid in the world (which will soon be invented). Although not entirely true, you have all undoubtedly heard from the medical community about Botox, and thanks to it, the deadliest poison has become famous. Botox uses botulinum toxin, produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and it is very deadly, with the amount of a grain of salt being enough to kill a 200-pound person. In fact, scientists have calculated that spraying just 4 kg of this substance is enough to kill all people on earth. An eagle would probably treat a rattlesnake much more humanely than this poison would treat a person.
4. The hottest substance
There are very few things in the world known to man that are hotter than the inside of a freshly microwaved Hot Pocket, but this stuff looks set to break that record too. Created by colliding gold atoms at nearly the speed of light, the substance is called quark-gluon "soup" and reaches a crazy 4 trillion degrees Celsius, which is almost 250,000 times hotter than the stuff inside the Sun. The amount of energy released during the collision would be enough to melt protons and neutrons, which itself has features you wouldn't even suspect. Scientists say this material could give us a glimpse of what the birth of our universe was like, so it's worth understanding that tiny supernovae aren't created for fun. However, the really good news is that the "soup" took up one trillionth of a centimeter and lasted for a trillionth of one trillionth of a second.
5. The most caustic acid
Acid is a terrible substance, one of the scariest monsters in cinema was given acid blood to make him even more terrible than just a killing machine (Alien), so it is ingrained within us that exposure to acid is a very bad thing. If the "aliens" were filled with fluoride-antimony acid, not only would they fall deep through the floor, but the fumes emitted from their dead bodies would kill everything around them. This acid is 21019 times stronger than sulfuric acid and can seep through glass. And it can explode if you add water. And during its reaction, toxic fumes are released that can kill anyone in the room.
6. The most explosive explosive
In fact, this place is currently shared by two components: HMX and heptanitrocubane. Heptanitrocubane mainly exists in laboratories, and is similar to HMX, but has a denser crystal structure, which carries a greater potential for destruction. HMX, on the other hand, exists in large enough quantities that it can threaten physical existence. It is used in solid fuel for rockets, and even for nuclear weapons detonators. And the last one is the worst, because despite how easily it happens in the movies, starting the fission/fusion reaction that results in bright glowing nuclear clouds that look like mushrooms is not an easy task, but HMX does it perfectly.
7. The most radioactive substance
Speaking of radiation, it's worth mentioning that the glowing green "plutonium" rods shown in The Simpsons are just fiction. Just because something is radioactive doesn't mean it glows. It's worth mentioning because polonium-210 is so radioactive that it glows blue. Former Soviet spy Alexander Litvinenko was misled into having the substance added to his food and died of cancer soon after. This is not something you want to joke about; the glow is caused by the air around the material being affected by radiation, and, in fact, objects around it can heat up. When we say “radiation,” we think, for example, of a nuclear reactor or explosion where a fission reaction actually occurs. This is only the release of ionized particles, and not the out-of-control splitting of atoms.
8. The heaviest substance
If you thought the heaviest substance on Earth was diamonds, it was a good but inaccurate guess. This is a technically engineered diamond nanorod. It is actually a collection of nano-scale diamonds, the least compressed and the heaviest substance known to man. It doesn't actually exist, but that would be pretty handy since it means that someday we could cover our cars with this stuff and just get rid of it when a train collision occurs (not a realistic event). This substance was invented in Germany in 2005 and will probably be used to the same extent as industrial diamonds, except that the new substance is more resistant to wear and tear than regular diamonds.
9. The most magnetic substance
If the inductor were a small black piece, then it would be the same substance. The substance, developed in 2010 from iron and nitrogen, has magnetic powers that are 18% greater than the previous record holder and is so powerful that it has forced scientists to reconsider how magnetism works. The person who discovered this substance distanced himself from his studies so that no other scientist could reproduce his work, since it was reported that a similar compound was developed in Japan in the past in 1996, but other physicists could not reproduce it, so this substance was not officially accepted. It is unclear whether Japanese physicists should promise to make Sepuku under these circumstances. If this substance can be reproduced, it could herald a new age of efficient electronics and magnetic motors, perhaps enhanced in power by an order of magnitude.
10. The strongest superfluidity
Superfluidity is a state of matter (either solid or gaseous) that occurs at extremely low temperatures, has high thermal conductivity (every ounce of that substance must be at exactly the same temperature) and no viscosity. Helium-2 is the most typical representative. The helium-2 cup will spontaneously rise and spill out of the container. Helium-2 will also leak through other solid materials, as the complete lack of friction allows it to flow through other invisible holes that regular helium (or water for that matter) would not leak through. Helium-2 does not come into its proper state at number 1, as if it has the ability to act on its own, although it is also the most efficient thermal conductor on Earth, several hundred times better than copper. Heat moves so quickly through Helium-2 that it travels in waves, like sound (known actually as "second sound"), rather than being dissipated, where it simply moves from one molecule to another. By the way, the forces that control the ability of helium-2 to crawl along the wall are called the “third sound.” You're unlikely to get anything more extreme than a substance that required the definition of 2 new types of sound.
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Most people can easily name the three classical states of matter: liquid, solid, and gas. Those who know a little science will add plasma to these three. But over time, scientists have expanded the list of possible states of matter beyond these four. In the process, we learned a lot about the Big Bang, lightsabers, and the secret state of matter hidden in the humble chicken.
Amorphous solids are a rather interesting subset of the well-known solid state. In a normal solid object, the molecules are well organized and don't have much room to move. This gives the solid a high viscosity, which is a measure of resistance to flow. Liquids, on the other hand, have a disorganized molecular structure that allows them to flow, spread, change shape, and take on the shape of the container they are in. Amorphous solids are somewhere in between these two states. During the process of vitrification, liquids cool and their viscosity increases until the substance no longer flows like a liquid, but its molecules remain disordered and do not take on a crystalline structure like normal solids.
The most common example of an amorphous solid is glass. For thousands of years, people have made glass from silicon dioxide. When glassmakers cool silica from its liquid state, it does not actually solidify when it drops below its melting point. As the temperature drops, the viscosity increases and the substance appears harder. However, its molecules still remain disordered. And then the glass becomes amorphous and hard at the same time. This transitional process allowed artisans to create beautiful and surreal glass structures.
What is the functional difference between amorphous solids and the normal solid state? In everyday life it is not particularly noticeable. Glass appears completely solid until you study it at the molecular level. And the myth that glass drips over time is not worth a penny. Most often, this myth is supported by the argument that old glass in churches seems thicker at the bottom, but this is due to imperfections in the glassblowing process at the time the glass was created. However, studying amorphous solids like glass is interesting from a scientific point of view for studying phase transitions and molecular structure.
Supercritical fluids (fluids)
Most phase transitions occur at a certain temperature and pressure. It is common knowledge that an increase in temperature eventually turns a liquid into a gas. However, when pressure increases along with temperature, the liquid makes the leap into the realm of supercritical fluids, which have the properties of both a gas and a liquid. For example, supercritical fluids can pass through solids like a gas, but can also act as a solvent like a liquid. Interestingly, a supercritical fluid can be made more like a gas or more like a liquid, depending on the combination of pressure and temperature. This has allowed scientists to find many applications for supercritical fluids.
Although supercritical fluids are not as common as amorphous solids, you probably interact with them just as often as you interact with glass. Supercritical carbon dioxide is loved by brewing companies for its ability to act as a solvent when reacting with hops, and coffee companies use it to make the best decaf coffee. Supercritical fluids have also been used to make hydrolysis more efficient and to allow power plants to operate at higher temperatures. In general, you probably use supercritical fluid byproducts every day.
Degenerate gas
While amorphous solids are at least found on planet Earth, degenerate matter is only found in certain types of stars. A degenerate gas exists when the external pressure of a substance is determined not by temperature, as on Earth, but by complex quantum principles, in particular the Pauli principle. Because of this, the external pressure of the degenerate substance will be maintained even if the temperature of the substance drops to absolute zero. Two main types of degenerate matter are known: electron-degenerate and neutron-degenerate matter.
Electronically degenerate matter exists mainly in white dwarfs. It forms in the core of a star when the mass of matter around the core tries to compress the core's electrons to a lower energy state. However, according to the Pauli principle, two identical particles cannot be in the same energy state. Thus, the particles "push" the matter around the nucleus, creating pressure. This is only possible if the star's mass is less than 1.44 solar masses. When a star exceeds this limit (known as the Chandrasekhar limit), it simply collapses into a neutron star or black hole.
When a star collapses and becomes a neutron star, it no longer has electron-degenerate matter, it is made of neutron-degenerate matter. Because a neutron star is heavy, electrons fuse with protons in its core to form neutrons. Free neutrons (neutrons not bound in the atomic nucleus) have a half-life of 10.3 minutes. But in the core of a neutron star, the mass of the star allows neutrons to exist outside the cores, forming neutron-degenerate matter.
Other exotic forms of degenerate matter may also exist, including strange matter, which can exist in the rare stellar form of quark stars. Quark stars are a stage between a neutron star and a black hole, where the quarks in the core are decoupled and form a soup of free quarks. We have not yet observed this type of star, but physicists admit their existence.
Superfluidity
Let's return to Earth to discuss superfluids. Superfluidity is a state of matter that exists in certain isotopes of helium, rubidium and lithium cooled to near absolute zero. This state is similar to a Bose-Einstein condensate (Bose-Einstein condensate, BEC), with a few differences. Some BECs are superfluids, and some superfluids are BECs, but not all are identical.
Liquid helium is known for its superfluidity. When helium is cooled to the "lambda point" of -270 degrees Celsius, part of the liquid becomes superfluid. If you cool most substances to a certain point, the attraction between atoms overcomes the thermal vibrations in the substance, allowing them to form a solid structure. But helium atoms interact with each other so weakly that they can remain liquid at a temperature of almost absolute zero. It turns out that at this temperature the characteristics of individual atoms overlap, giving rise to strange superfluidity properties.
Superfluids have no internal viscosity. Superfluids placed in a test tube begin to creep up the sides of the test tube, seemingly defying the laws of gravity and surface tension. Liquid helium leaks easily because it can slip through even microscopic holes. Superfluidity also has strange thermodynamic properties. In this state, substances have zero thermodynamic entropy and infinite thermal conductivity. This means that two superfluids cannot be thermally distinct. If you add heat to a superfluid substance, it will conduct it so quickly that heat waves are formed that are not characteristic of ordinary liquids.
Bose-Einstein condensate
The Bose-Einstein condensate is probably one of the most famous obscure forms of matter. First, we need to understand what bosons and fermions are. A fermion is a particle with half-integer spin (like an electron) or a composite particle (like a proton). These particles obey the Pauli exclusion principle, which allows electron-degenerate matter to exist. A boson, however, has full integer spin, and several bosons can occupy the same quantum state. Bosons include any force-carrying particles (such as photons), as well as some atoms, including helium-4 and other gases. Elements in this category are known as bosonic atoms.
In the 1920s, Albert Einstein built on the work of Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose to propose a new form of matter. Einstein's original theory was that if you cooled certain elemental gases to a temperature a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, their wave functions would merge to create one "superatom." Such a substance will exhibit quantum effects at the macroscopic level. But it wasn't until the 1990s that the technologies needed to cool elements to such temperatures emerged. In 1995, scientists Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman were able to combine 2,000 atoms into a Bose-Einstein condensate that was large enough to be seen with a microscope.
Bose-Einstein condensates are closely related to superfluids, but also have their own set of unique properties. It's also funny that BEC can slow down the normal speed of light. In 1998, Harvard scientist Lene Howe was able to slow light to 60 kilometers per hour by shining a laser through a cigar-shaped BEC sample. In later experiments, Howe's group was able to completely stop the light in the BEC by turning off the laser as the light passed through the sample. These opened up a new field of communications based on light and quantum computing.
Jahn–Teller metals
Jahn-Teller metals are the newest baby in the world of states of matter, as scientists were only able to successfully create them for the first time in 2015. If the experiments are confirmed by other laboratories, these metals could change the world, since they have the properties of both an insulator and a superconductor.
Scientists led by chemist Cosmas Prassides experimented by introducing rubidium into the structure of carbon-60 molecules (commonly known as fullerenes), which caused the fullerenes to take on a new form. This metal is named after the Jahn-Teller effect, which describes how pressure can change the geometric shape of molecules into new electronic configurations. In chemistry, pressure is achieved not only by compressing something, but also by adding new atoms or molecules to a pre-existing structure, changing its basic properties.
When Prassides' research group began adding rubidium to carbon-60 molecules, the carbon molecules changed from insulators to semiconductors. However, due to the Jahn-Teller effect, the molecules tried to stay in the old configuration, creating a substance that tried to be an insulator but had the electrical properties of a superconductor. The transition between insulator and superconductor had never been considered until these experiments began.
The interesting thing about Jahn-Teller metals is that they become superconductors at high temperatures (-135 degrees Celsius, rather than the usual 243.2 degrees). This brings them closer to acceptable levels for mass production and experimentation. If confirmed, we may be one step closer to creating superconductors that operate at room temperature, which in turn will revolutionize many areas of our lives.
Photonic matter
For many decades, it was believed that photons were massless particles that did not interact with each other. However, over the past few years, scientists at MIT and Harvard have discovered new ways to "give" light mass—and even create "" that bounce off each other and bind together. Some considered this to be the first step towards creating a lightsaber.
The science of photonic matter is a little more complicated, but it is quite possible to comprehend. Scientists began creating photonic matter by experimenting with supercooled rubidium gas. When a photon shoots through the gas, it reflects and interacts with rubidium molecules, losing energy and slowing down. After all, the photon leaves the cloud very slowly.
Strange things start to happen when you pass two photons through a gas, creating a phenomenon known as Rydberg block. When an atom is excited by a photon, nearby atoms cannot be excited to the same degree. The excited atom finds itself in the path of the photon. For an atom nearby to be excited by a second photon, the first photon must pass through the gas. Photons do not normally interact with each other, but when they encounter a Rydberg block, they push each other through the gas, exchanging energy and interacting with each other. From the outside, photons appear to have mass and act as a single molecule, although they are actually massless. When the photons come out of the gas, they appear to come together, like a molecule of light.
The practical application of photonic matter is still in question, but it will certainly be found. Perhaps even lightsabers.
Disordered superuniformity
When trying to determine whether a substance is in a new state, scientists look at the structure of the substance as well as its properties. In 2003, Salvatore Torquato and Frank Stillinger of Princeton University proposed a new state of matter known as disordered superuniformity. Although this phrase seems like an oxymoron, at its core it suggests a new type of substance that appears disordered when viewed closely, but is hyper-uniform and structured from afar. Such a substance must have the properties of a crystal and a liquid. At first glance, this already exists in plasmas and liquid hydrogen, but recently scientists discovered a natural example where no one expected: in a chicken eye.
Chickens have five cones in their retina. Four detect color and one is responsible for light levels. However, unlike the human eye or the hexagonal eyes of insects, these cones are randomly distributed, with no real order. This happens because the cones in a chicken's eye have exclusion zones around them, and these do not allow two cones of the same type to be close together. Due to the exclusion zone and shape of the cones, they cannot form ordered crystalline structures (as in solids), but when all the cones are considered as one, they appear to have a highly ordered pattern, as seen in the Princeton images below. Thus, we can describe these cones in the retina of a chicken eye as a liquid when viewed closely and as a solid substance when viewed from afar. This is different from the amorphous solids we talked about above because this super-homogeneous material will act as a liquid while an amorphous solid will not.
Scientists are still investigating this new state of matter because it may also be more common than originally thought. Now scientists at Princeton University are trying to adapt such superhomogeneous materials to create self-organizing structures and light detectors that respond to light of a specific wavelength.
String networks
What state of matter is the vacuum of space? Most people don't think about it, but in the last ten years, Xiao Gang-Wen of MIT and Michael Levine of Harvard have proposed a new state of matter that could lead us to the discovery of fundamental particles beyond the electron.
The path to developing a string-network fluid model began in the mid-90s, when a group of scientists proposed so-called quasiparticles, which seemed to appear in an experiment when electrons passed between two semiconductors. There was a commotion because the quasiparticles acted as if they had a fractional charge, which seemed impossible for the physics of that time. Scientists analyzed the data and suggested that the electron is not a fundamental particle of the Universe and that there are fundamental particles that we have not yet discovered. This work brought them the Nobel Prize, but later it turned out that an error in the experiment had crept into the results of their work. Quasiparticles were conveniently forgotten.
But not all. Wen and Levin took the idea of quasiparticles as a basis and proposed a new state of matter, the string-net state. The main property of such a state is quantum entanglement. As with disordered superuniformity, if you look at string-net matter up close, it looks like a disordered collection of electrons. But if you look at it as a whole structure, you will see high order due to the quantum entangled properties of the electrons. Wen and Lewin then expanded their work to cover other particles and entanglement properties.
Working through computer models of the new state of matter, Wen and Levin discovered that the ends of the string nets could produce a variety of subatomic particles, including the legendary "quasiparticles." An even bigger surprise was that when the string-network material vibrates, it does so in accordance with Maxwell's equations for light. Wen and Levin proposed that the cosmos is filled with string networks of entangled subatomic particles, and that the ends of these string networks represent the subatomic particles that we observe. They also suggested that the string-net fluid could provide the existence of light. If the vacuum of space is filled with string-net fluid, it could allow us to combine light and matter.
This may all seem very far-fetched, but in 1972 (decades before the string-net proposals), geologists discovered a strange material in Chile - herbertsmithite. In this mineral, electrons form triangular structures that seem to contradict everything we know about how electrons interact with each other. Additionally, this triangular structure was predicted by the string-network model, and the scientists worked with artificial herbertsmithite to accurately confirm the model.
Quark-gluon plasma
Speaking of the last state of matter on this list, consider the state that started it all: quark-gluon plasma. In the early Universe, the state of matter differed significantly from the classical one. First, a little background.
Quarks are elementary particles that we find inside hadrons (such as protons and neutrons). Hadrons consist of either three quarks or one quark and one antiquark. Quarks have fractional charges and are held together by gluons, which are exchange particles of the strong nuclear force.
We don't see free quarks in nature, but right after the Big Bang, free quarks and gluons existed for a millisecond. During this time, the temperature of the Universe was so high that quarks and gluons moved at almost the speed of light. During this period, the Universe consisted entirely of this hot quark-gluon plasma. After another fraction of a second, the Universe cooled enough for heavy particles like hadrons to form, and quarks began to interact with each other and gluons. From that moment on, the formation of the Universe we know began, and hadrons began to bond with electrons, creating primitive atoms.
Already in the modern Universe, scientists have tried to recreate quark-gluon plasma in large particle accelerators. During these experiments, heavy particles such as hadrons collided with each other, creating a temperature at which the quarks separated for a short time. In the course of these experiments, we learned a lot about the properties of quark-gluon plasma, which was completely frictionless and more liquid-like than ordinary plasma. Experiments with exotic states of matter allow us to learn a lot about how and why our Universe formed as we know it.
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10. The Blackest Matter Known to Man
What happens if you stack the edges of carbon nanotubes on top of each other and alternate layers of them? The result is a material that absorbs 99.9% of the light that hits it. The microscopic surface of the material is uneven and rough, which refracts light and is also a poor reflective surface. After that, try using carbon nanotubes as superconductors in a specific order, which makes them excellent light absorbers, and you'll get a real black storm. Scientists are seriously puzzled by the potential uses of this substance, since, in fact, light is not “lost”, the substance could be used to improve optical devices such as telescopes and even be used for solar cells operating at almost 100% efficiency.
9. The most flammable substance
Lots of things burn at an astonishing rate, such as styrofoam, napalm, and that's just the beginning. But what if there was a substance that could set the earth on fire? On the one hand, this is a provocative question, but it was asked as a starting point. Chlorine trifluoride has the dubious reputation of being a horribly flammable substance, even though the Nazis believed the substance was too dangerous to work with. When people who discuss genocide believe that their purpose in life is not to use something because it is too lethal, it supports careful handling of these substances. They say that one day a ton of the stuff spilled and a fire started, burning 12 inches of concrete and a meter of sand and gravel before it all died down. Unfortunately, the Nazis were right.
8. The most poisonous substance
Tell me, what would you least like to get on your face? This could well be the deadliest poison, which would rightfully take 3rd place among the main extreme substances. Such a poison is indeed different from what burns through concrete, and from the strongest acid in the world (which will soon be invented). Although not entirely true, you have all undoubtedly heard from the medical community about Botox, and thanks to it, the deadliest poison has become famous. Botox uses botulinum toxin, produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and it is very deadly, with the amount of a grain of salt being enough to kill a 200-pound person. In fact, scientists have calculated that spraying just 4 kg of this substance is enough to kill all people on earth. An eagle would probably treat a rattlesnake much more humanely than this poison would treat a person.
7. The hottest substance
There are very few things in the world known to man that are hotter than the inside of a freshly microwaved Hot Pocket, but this stuff looks set to break that record too. Created by colliding gold atoms at nearly the speed of light, the substance is called quark-gluon "soup" and reaches a crazy 4 trillion degrees Celsius, which is almost 250,000 times hotter than the stuff inside the Sun. The amount of energy released during the collision would be enough to melt protons and neutrons, which itself has features you wouldn't even suspect. Scientists say this material could give us a glimpse of what the birth of our universe was like, so it's worth understanding that tiny supernovae aren't created for fun. However, the really good news is that the "soup" took up one trillionth of a centimeter and lasted for a trillionth of one trillionth of a second.
Acid is a terrible substance, one of the scariest monsters in cinema was given acid blood to make him even more terrible than just a killing machine (Alien), so it is ingrained within us that exposure to acid is a very bad thing. If the "aliens" were filled with fluoride-antimony acid, not only would they fall deep through the floor, but the fumes emitted from their dead bodies would kill everything around them. This acid is 21019 times stronger than sulfuric acid and can seep through glass. And it can explode if you add water. And during its reaction, toxic fumes are released that can kill anyone in the room. Perhaps we should move on to another substance...
In fact, this place is currently shared by two components: HMX and heptanitrocubane. Heptanitrocubane mainly exists in laboratories, and is similar to HMX, but has a denser crystal structure, which carries a greater potential for destruction. HMX, on the other hand, exists in large enough quantities that it can threaten physical existence. It is used in solid fuel for rockets, and even for nuclear weapons detonators. And the last one is the worst, because despite how easily it happens in the movies, starting the fission/fusion reaction that results in bright glowing nuclear clouds that look like mushrooms is not an easy task, but HMX does it perfectly.
4. The most radioactive substance
Speaking of radiation, it's worth mentioning that the glowing green "plutonium" rods shown in The Simpsons are just a fiction. Just because something is radioactive doesn't mean it glows. It's worth mentioning because polonium-210 is so radioactive that it glows blue. Former Soviet spy Alexander Litvinenko was misled into having the substance added to his food and died of cancer soon after. This is not something you want to joke about; the glow is caused by the air around the material being affected by radiation, and, in fact, objects around it can heat up. When we say “radiation,” we think, for example, of a nuclear reactor or explosion where a fission reaction actually occurs. This is only the release of ionized particles, and not the out-of-control splitting of atoms.
3. The heaviest substance
If you thought the heaviest substance on Earth was diamonds, it was a good but inaccurate guess. This is a technically engineered diamond nanorod. It is actually a collection of nano-scale diamonds, the least compressed and the heaviest substance known to man. It doesn't actually exist, but that would be pretty handy since it means that someday we could cover our cars with this stuff and just get rid of it when a train collision occurs (not a realistic event). This substance was invented in Germany in 2005 and will probably be used to the same extent as industrial diamonds, except that the new substance is more resistant to wear and tear than regular diamonds. This stuff is even harder than algebra.
2. The most magnetic substance
If the inductor were a small black piece, then it would be the same substance. The substance, developed in 2010 from iron and nitrogen, has magnetic powers that are 18% greater than the previous record holder and is so powerful that it has forced scientists to reconsider how magnetism works. The person who discovered this substance distanced himself from his studies so that no other scientist could reproduce his work, since it was reported that a similar compound was developed in Japan in the past in 1996, but other physicists could not reproduce it, so this substance was not officially accepted. It is unclear whether Japanese physicists should promise to make Sepuku under these circumstances. If this substance can be reproduced, it could herald a new age of efficient electronics and magnetic motors, perhaps enhanced in power by an order of magnitude.
1. The strongest superfluidity
Superfluidity is a state of matter (either solid or gaseous) that occurs at extremely low temperatures, has high thermal conductivity (every ounce of that substance must be at exactly the same temperature) and no viscosity. Helium-2 is the most typical representative. The helium-2 cup will spontaneously rise and spill out of the container. Helium-2 will also leak through other solid materials, as the complete lack of friction allows it to flow through other invisible holes that regular helium (or water for that matter) would not leak through. Helium-2 does not come into its proper state at number 1, as if it has the ability to act on its own, although it is also the most efficient thermal conductor on Earth, several hundred times better than copper. Heat moves so quickly through Helium-2 that it travels in waves, like sound (known actually as "second sound"), rather than being dissipated, where it simply moves from one molecule to another. By the way, the forces that control the ability of helium-2 to crawl along the wall are called the “third sound.” You're unlikely to get anything more extreme than a substance that required the definition of 2 new types of sound.
translation for
We can laugh at our ancestors, who considered gunpowder to be magic and did not understand what magnets are, however, even in our enlightened age, there are materials created by science, but similar to the result of real witchcraft. These materials are often difficult to obtain, but are worth it.
1. Metal that melts in your hands
The existence of liquid metals such as mercury and the ability of metals to become liquid at a certain temperature are well known. But solid metal melting in your hands like ice cream is an unusual phenomenon. This metal is called gallium. It melts at room temperature and is unsuitable for practical use. If you place a gallium object in a glass of hot liquid, it will dissolve right before your eyes. In addition, gallium can make aluminum very brittle - simply placing a drop of gallium on an aluminum surface is enough.
2. Gas capable of holding solid objects
This gas is heavier than air, and if you fill a closed container with it, it will settle to the bottom. Just like water, sulfur hexafluoride can withstand less dense objects, such as a tin foil boat. The colorless gas will hold the object on its surface, and it will appear that the boat is floating. Sulfur hexafluoride can be scooped out of the container with an ordinary glass - then the boat will smoothly sink to the bottom.
In addition, due to its gravity, the gas reduces the frequency of any sound passing through it, and if you inhale a little sulfur hexafluoride, your voice will sound like the ominous baritone of Dr. Evil.
3. Hydrophobic coatings
The green tile in the photo is not jelly at all, but tinted water. It is located on a flat plate, along the edges treated with a hydrophobic coating. The coating repels water and the droplets take on a convex shape. There is a perfect raw square in the middle of the white surface and the water collects there. A drop placed on the treated area will immediately flow to the untreated area and merge with the rest of the water. If you dip a finger treated with a hydrophobic coating into a glass of water, it will remain completely dry, and a “bubble” will form around it - the water will desperately try to escape from you. Based on such substances, it is planned to create water-repellent clothing and glass for cars.
4. Spontaneously exploding powder
Triiodine nitride looks like a ball of dirt, but appearances can be deceiving: the material is so unstable that the slightest touch of a pen is enough to cause an explosion. The material is used exclusively for experiments - it is dangerous even to move it from place to place. When the material explodes, it produces a beautiful purple smoke. A similar substance is silver fulminate - it is also not used anywhere and is only suitable for making bombs.
Hot ice, also known as sodium acetate, is a liquid that hardens upon slightest contact. With a simple touch, it instantly transforms from a liquid state into an ice-hard crystal. Patterns are formed on the entire surface, like on windows in frosty weather; the process continues for several seconds until the entire substance “freezes.” When pressed, a crystallization center is formed, from which information about the new state is transmitted to the molecules along the chain. Of course, the end result is not ice at all - as the name suggests, the substance is quite warm to the touch, cools very slowly and is used to make chemical heating pads.
6. Metal with memory
Nitinol, an alloy of nickel and titanium, has the impressive ability to “remember” its original shape and return to it after deformation. All it requires is a little heat. For example, you can drop warm water on the alloy, and it will return to its original shape, no matter how much it was previously distorted. Methods for its practical application are currently being developed. For example, it would be reasonable to make glasses from such material - if they accidentally bend, you just need to put them under a stream of warm water. Of course, it is unknown whether cars or anything else serious will ever be made from nitinol, but the properties of the alloy are impressive.
Amazing substances with interesting chemical and physical properties that are created by science.
Metal that melts in your hands.
The existence of liquid metals such as mercury and the ability of metals to become liquid at a certain temperature are well known. But solid metal melting in your hands like ice cream is an unusual phenomenon. This metal is called gallium. It melts at room temperature and is unsuitable for practical use. If you place a gallium object in a glass of hot liquid, it will dissolve right before your eyes. In addition, gallium can make aluminum very brittle - simply placing a drop of gallium on an aluminum surface is enough.
A gas capable of holding solid objects.
This gas is heavier than air, and if you fill a closed container with it, it will settle to the bottom. Just like water, sulfur hexafluoride can withstand less dense objects, such as a tin foil boat. The colorless gas will hold the object on its surface, and it will appear that the boat is floating. Sulfur hexafluoride can be scooped out of the container with an ordinary glass - then the boat will smoothly sink to the bottom.
In addition, due to its gravity, the gas reduces the frequency of any sound passing through it, and if you inhale a little sulfur hexafluoride, your voice will sound like the ominous baritone of Dr. Evil.
Hydrophobic coatings.
The green tile in the photo is not jelly at all, but tinted water. It is located on a flat plate, along the edges treated with a hydrophobic coating. The coating repels water and the droplets take on a convex shape. There is a perfect raw square in the middle of the white surface and the water collects there. A drop placed on the treated area will immediately flow to the untreated area and merge with the rest of the water. If you dip a finger treated with a hydrophobic coating into a glass of water, it will remain completely dry, and a “bubble” will form around it - the water will desperately try to escape from you. Based on such substances, it is planned to create water-repellent clothing and glass for cars.
Spontaneously exploding powder.
Triiodine nitride looks like a ball of dirt, but appearances can be deceiving: the material is so unstable that the slightest touch of a pen is enough to cause an explosion. The material is used exclusively for experiments - it is dangerous even to move it from place to place. When the material explodes, it produces a beautiful purple smoke. A similar substance is silver fulminate - it is also not used anywhere and is only suitable for making bombs.
Hot Ice.
Hot ice, also known as sodium acetate, is a liquid that hardens upon slightest contact. With a simple touch, it instantly transforms from a liquid state into an ice-hard crystal. Patterns are formed on the entire surface, like on windows in frosty weather; the process continues for several seconds until the entire substance “freezes.” When pressed, a crystallization center is formed, from which information about the new state is transmitted to the molecules along the chain. Of course, the end result is not ice at all - as the name suggests, the substance is quite warm to the touch, cools very slowly and is used to make chemical heating pads.
A metal with memory.
Nitinol, an alloy of nickel and titanium, has the impressive ability to “remember” its original shape and return to it after deformation. All it requires is a little heat. For example, you can drop warm water on the alloy, and it will return to its original shape, no matter how much it was previously distorted. Methods for its practical application are currently being developed. For example, it would be reasonable to make glasses from such material - if they accidentally bend, you just need to put them under a stream of warm water. Of course, it is unknown whether cars or anything else serious will ever be made from nitinol, but the properties of the alloy are impressive.