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Kittigate

What is the strangest substance that scientists know about?

Science mysteries can be interesting. 

Posted - September 6, 2018
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Responses


  • 5354
    Halo nuclei are the strangest I have heard of. Isotopes with too many neutrons tends to have some neutrons orbiting the nucleus inside the electron shell.

    "One example of a halo nucleus is 11Li, which has a half-life of 8.6 ms. It contains a core of 3 protons and 6 neutrons, and a halo of two independent and loosely bound neutrons. It decays into 11Be by the emission of an antineutrino and an electron.[1] Its mass radius of 3.16 fm is close to that of 32S or, even more impressively, of 208Pb, both much heavier nuclei.[2]"

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_nucleus
     This post was edited by JakobA the unAmerican. at September 13, 2018 6:04 PM MDT
      September 7, 2018 12:35 AM MDT
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  • 13395
    That's interesting -thanks. 
      September 7, 2018 1:14 AM MDT
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  • 14795
    Why not ask your Nan'o that....
    How to extract vitamin D from Sheeps wool....:)
      September 7, 2018 1:39 AM MDT
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  • 4624
    From the point of view of scientists, the answer seems to be water

    The more scientists examine H2O, the stranger it seems.
    Apparently, it bends all the rules about what matter does when it changes state.

    Most substances contract when they cool into the solid state. They thus become denser and heavier and can't float on liquids of the same chemical substance.

    But water expands when it freezes, makes it less dense and lighter, so unlike any other chemical, ice floats in water.

    If water followed the rules, all of the water on Earth should exist as only vapour. A water molecule is made from two very light atoms – hydrogen and oxygen – and, at the ambient conditions on the surface of the Earth, it should be a gas. 


      September 7, 2018 4:17 AM MDT
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  • 44645
    Your last paragraph has a few flaws. Water is made from 3 atoms with a molecular mass of 18g/mol. This has nothing to do with its physical state. Consider Lithium. It has an atomic mass of 6.94 g/mol and yet it is a solid. It's density is low enough that it will float on water. (briefly, anyway.) One more thing, huge amounts of water vapour are already in the air, otherwise we wouldn't have precipitation.
      September 7, 2018 6:59 AM MDT
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  • 4624
    Agreed - I made several errors that would not pass basic high school science. 
    Water is H2O  - and the 2 are the hydrogen. 
    Is water vapour really the gaseus form of water, or does it exist as micro-droplets as in steam?
    I wonder about this because on humid days the air becomes less transparent - from high cliffs the distant view is obscured. Also in fog or flying through clouds we cannot see far.

    Very happy to be educated by you.
      September 10, 2018 12:47 AM MDT
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  • 3719
    You are right - steam is the gaseous form of water, and in that state is actually transparent. If you look at the steam emerging form a safety-valve on something like a steam-locomotive, you may see a small gap between the valve outlet and the plume of vapour. In this state the water exists as a gas: separate molecules.

    As it cools, the molecules start to coalesce into those micro-droplets that form haze, mist and fog, and of course the clouds. Sometimes you can just about see the droplets swirling around. In time, further coalescence raises the mass of each droplet until it loses its buoyancy in the air, and falls as, e.g., a rain-drop. 

    An effect I have often noticed, is that on foggy days the air is slightly less misty under trees, because the leaves and twigs capture the tiny droplets and remove them from the air as films of water dripping off or trickling down.


      September 10, 2018 5:55 AM MDT
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  • 44645
    HEY...I'm the science guy here. OK...you beat me to it. Watch it, buddy. LOL
      September 10, 2018 8:32 AM MDT
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  • 4624
    Thank you, Durdle.
    Very clearly expresses, and aiding my better understanding. :)
      September 18, 2018 9:08 PM MDT
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  • 5354
    As always in chemistry it is a balance, a proportoion of the steam codense to form less transparet water droplets, how many depends of humidity and pressire And probably several other parameters. This post was edited by JakobA the unAmerican. at September 18, 2018 1:42 PM MDT
      September 18, 2018 1:34 PM MDT
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  • 16819
    It defies the change state rule because it's a polar molecule. Ammonia (NH3) behaves similarly - frozen ammonia floats on liquid ammonia, as happens on Titan.
      September 18, 2018 7:17 PM MDT
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  • 19937
    Lab grown "meat."
      September 7, 2018 8:58 AM MDT
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  • 44645
    Yummy.
      September 18, 2018 1:42 PM MDT
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  • 19937
    I know I can't wait!
      September 18, 2018 2:05 PM MDT
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  • 22891
    have no idea
      September 7, 2018 11:48 AM MDT
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  • 3719
    Perhaps the postulated Dark Matter that is thought to pervade the Universe - from my admittedly-limited understanding of astro- and quantum- physics, I gather it seems to exist by theory that's chiefly mathematics, but no-one can pin-point what it actually is!

    I think otherwise the real mysteries are not the characteristics of individual substances, but of some natural processes... such as how our brains actually form our emotions, thoughts and memories. Knowing how a nerve cell and its connections works chemically is one thing, knowing how do they do what they do, is another matter! It's like trying to understand how a super-computer computes, from knowing only how a transistor works - only harder. Perhaps theoretical astrophysics is easier.

    Of single, accessible substances, water certainly must be up there with the oddities, but if it wasn't for its behaviour, life could not exist: It:- 

    Melts from solid at a comparatively low temperature, exhibits peculiar density/temperature behaviour (as Nom de Plume explains) at slightly above that; then boiling at only 100ºC above its melting-point.

    Has high specific and latent heats, allowing a given volume to hold or release a sizeable quantity of heat energy from a small temperature difference. The corollary is its efficacy as a coolant.

    Will dissolve or react with a greater range of materials than any other solvent or reagent; though some reactions work only at high temperature.

    Acts as a flux to help subducted rock to melt - then aids and abets the consequent volcanic eruptions to be violent.

    Is a poor electrical conductor but highly conductive electrolyte at the slightest provocation.

    Will kill us if inhaled, yet also kill us by its lack.

           - yet is one of the simplest and most familiar chemical compounds going.  
      September 8, 2018 4:29 PM MDT
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  • 44645
    Gotta love that DHMO.
      September 10, 2018 8:34 AM MDT
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  • 16819
    Dark matter doesn't qualify, the question specifically states "that scientists KNOW about", and the chief thing about dark matter is that we know absolutely nothing about it at all - even that it exists. It explains away a lot of puzzling data, but as nobody has put salt on its tail, it's no more acceptable than saying "God", which is similarly used to explain away the unexplainable.
      September 18, 2018 7:27 PM MDT
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  • 44645
    Thank you. Create something so the equations are correct. Maybe some day we will discover dark matter. Fermi postulated the neutrino to fit some discrepancies and years later they discovered them.
      September 19, 2018 6:58 AM MDT
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  • 23617

    Lichen

    I'll go the fiction route --  one of my favorite books by a favorite author, John Wyndham - - "The Trouble with Lichen"

    'They had discovered the formula for eternal youth - - and that discovery could cost them their lives!




    Image result for the trouble with lichen
    This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at September 18, 2018 5:10 PM MDT
      September 13, 2018 6:10 PM MDT
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  • 14795
    Lichen is the only thing of our planet that can servive  in outer space... ,maybe it's where all life started from..
      September 18, 2018 5:13 PM MDT
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  • 23617
    I didn't know that. Interesting!
    I'm so oblivious to the obvious sometimes -- I thought lichen was something author John Wyndham made up.
    :)
    How closely was I reading this favorite book of mine? I don't know!
    :)


    This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at September 18, 2018 7:09 PM MDT
      September 18, 2018 7:00 PM MDT
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  • 44645
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen
      September 18, 2018 7:09 PM MDT
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  • 23617
    I didn't read all of the essay but fascinating stuff! I read the entire first part. I may need to come back and read it all. I am happy to see that John Wyndham and his novel are included in the essay.
    :)


      September 18, 2018 7:20 PM MDT
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