Bismuth crystals are often covered with a super-thin layer of bismuth oxide. That's why they
look so pretty and colorful. This brittle metal has a rather low melting point – around 520˚F.
Interestingly, as a liquid, bismuth is heavier than when it's solid. There's only one other
substance with the same quality – it's water. Bismuth will resist if you try to magnetize
it. And any magnetic field will repel it. If you heat bismuth, it'll burn with a blue flame
and produce intense yellow clouds of oxide. When this metal freezes, it expands – unlike
almost all other elements. Frozen bismuth forms beautiful crystalline structures.
What you see is nicknamed "solid cloud" or "frozen smoke." But its more scientific name is aerogel.
This ultralight substance is made up of gel and gas.
There are lots of recipes for different kinds of aerogel. But the main idea is the same:
take several chemicals and mix them together until they form a wet gel. After that,
remove all the liquid. You'll get material with super-low density, that will be 99% air. And
since air is an awful heat conductor, aerogel is perfect for creating "insulating blankets."
These unique creatures are also called moss piglets and water bears. Tardigrades
(which is their official name) are known for their ability to survive literally anywhere.
Their favorite hangout places are areas with a lot of mud or moss.
But these microorganisms won't mind living in scorching environments with temperatures as
high as 300˚F. They can also deal with a temperature as low as -330˚F​​​​​​​.
These micro-bears can also thrive in radioactive areas. They've been found in places with pressure
six times greater than at the bottom of the ocean. Tardigrades can even survive the vacuum of space!
Vantablack is the darkest substance on Earth. This nanomaterial was invented in 2015.
It's a set of ultra-slim vertical carbon tubes. The walls of these cylinders are
just one atom thin. They absorb 99.98% of the light that touches their surface
by trapping photons. It means that your eye will literally see nothing when you
glance at Vantablack. It's probably the closest to gaping into a black hole!
The most expensive metal on Earth – Californium 252 – costs a whopping $27 million per gram!
This "designer chemical" is used to find layers of water and oil in oil wells, to identify silver and
gold ores. It also comes in handy if you need to detect metal wear in planes. But there's
something even more expensive than that – and it's antimatter. Nothing comes even close to
its price of $23.6 billion per gram! Humans have managed to create some antimatter. But it's just a
tiny amount weighing 15 nanograms at most. (And 1 nanogram weighs a billion times less than 1 gram.)
The atoms of antihydrogen (all 309 of them) were trapped and stored for almost
17 minutes. But the researchers are sure they could be kept for an even longer time.
Some scientists believe that in the future, antimatter might be used as fuel for intergalactic
spaceships, or as an ice cream topping. But at the moment, it's still in the realms of
science fiction. You’re right, no it’s not an ice cream topping. Ha. You couldn’t afford it.
A volcano in Indonesia spews bright-blue lava and produces electric blue and purple flames.
This phenomenon occurs because the volcano has some of the highest levels of sulfur in
the world. And when sulfuric gases interact with scorching hot air and get lit by the molten lava,
they turn blue. You can also find the world's largest acid lake inside this crater.
Underwater rivers and lakes are called brine pools for a reason.
High salinity makes the water in them denser than the seawater around. That's why it sinks to
the bottom, forming rivers and lakes. Those have waves of their own. And these waves can sometimes
lap against the "shorelines." If you went down there in a submarine, it would easily float on
the surface of a brine pool. But without a submarine, swimming in such a lake would be
too risky. They contain too much toxic methane and hydrogen sulfide. Yeah I’d pass on that too.
If you travel to the Philippines, Indonesia, or Papua New Guinea,
you'll have a chance to see some of the most unusual and cheerful trees in the world.
That's the rainbow eucalyptus. Its trunk looks as if it has been painted orange, green, red, purple,
maroon, yellow; you name it. Some trees are so bright that they look artificial. The rainbow
eucalyptus regularly sheds long strips of bark. This reveals a bright green layer underneath.
A bit later, this green layer gradually changes its color. But the shedding happens at different
times and on different parts of the trunk. That's why the tree looks multicolored.
A mammoth-sized piece of jade stone worth $170 million was discovered in 2016. It weighed almost
200 tons and was 14 ft high and 19 ft​​​​​​​ long. The stone was sent away to be carved
into sculptures and jewelry. Point Nemo is the furthest place from literally anything on Earth.
It's also called "the oceanic point of inaccessibility."
It's a hint that the mysterious place lies in the ocean, not far from Antarctica.
Point Nemo is so far away that the nearest humans are often astronauts.
The International Space Station travels around 260 miles above our planet's surface.
And the closest inhabited place on the surface of the planet is more than 1,600
miles away. Cave of Crystals in Mexico is home to the world's most unique crystal formations.
Thanks to super-rare conditions in the cave, crystals there grow to unbelievable sizes.
The temperatures inside the cave don't drop below 136˚F​​​​. The air is incredibly humid.
The water contains tons of minerals that boost the growth of the milky-white giants.
Some of them are longer than telephone poles. Cylindrical snow donuts occur when a wind gust
starts to roll some snow across a snowy area – as if making a snowball. If it was a real thing,
it would eventually become too heavy for the wind to move. But a snow donut's center is hollowed
out. This happens because its inner layer is too thin and is blown away when the donut is
formed. This makes the thing lighter than a snowball. That's also why it rolls further.
Unfortunately, snow donuts are rare because they need very precise conditions to appear.
The largest living organism on Earth doesn't actually move,
breathe, or munch on food. Because it's a colossal fungus. The Humongous Fungus has spread across
almost 2.4 acres of the Malheur National Forest in Oregon. Scientists found this "mushroom" in
2017. They used DNA testing and made sure that all parts of the fungus belong to the same organism.
They also believe that the enormous thing might have been growing there for up to 8,000 years!
The Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is probably one of the most bizarre-looking places you'll
ever see. It's dotted with neon-colored hot springs, lava pools, and vast salt flats.
You've got to be especially careful there. Toxic gases are swirling over hydrothermal fields.
And many pools are super-acidic. So don’t go swimming. Until at least 30 minutes after lunch.
The 240-page Voynich Manuscript is written in an unknown language. It’s been baffling all kinds of
code-breakers for years. Scientists believe the manuscript was created in the early 15th century.
It's filled with bizarre diagrams and mysterious illustrations.
You can see there all kinds of things, for example, unusual plants.
But all attempts to identify these plants or decipher the text have failed.
Blood rains are more terrifying than any stuff you can see in a horror movie. But in reality,
there's nothing strange or unnatural about this weather phenomenon. People have known about such
scarlet-tinted rains since the times of Ancient Rome. Sometimes, powerful winds lift red dust
into the atmosphere and carry it far, far away. In the end, this dust gets mixed with clouds,
which colors the rain. By the way, dust from coal mines can make the rain black.
Pollen is responsible for yellow rains. And some other kinds of dust can turn rainwater white.
There's nothing mysterious about 28,000 rubber ducks found in the sea in 1992.
That's when a ship transporting bath toys got lost in the ocean
while traveling from Hong Kong to the US. Some of these ducks are still floating in the ocean
several decades later. They've been spotted in South America, Alaska, Hawaii, and even Australia!
Volcanic tornadoes are likely to be some of the most terrifying natural phenomena. When a volcano
erupts, it spews red-hot rock and ash high into the atmosphere. And solid lava pieces and hot
gases travel down the volcano's slope. When this flow moves down, some of the trapped gases begin
to rise and spin. When squeezed by the surrounding air, they start to spin faster and faster.
That's how a volcanic tornado occurs. Luckily, this phenomenon has a very short lifespan.
A horseshoe cloud is one of the rarest and most bizarre clouds ever.
Such a vortex happens when a flat cloud travels over a column of warm rising air.
This air not only gives the cloud its impressive shape but also adds some spin to its movement.
Unfortunately, horseshoe clouds are very fleeting and usually last for only several minutes.