Cosmic election
The universe is full of cosmic rays, blasted out from neighbouring galaxies, supernovae, and the like. In 2003, they nearly changed the outcome of a local Belgian election.
Impossible colours
Through some tricks of the human eye, we can see colours outside of the normal visual range: Stygian, self-luminous, and hyperbolic colours, and perhaps even combinations like redgreen. These are the impossible colours.
Iceberg battleship
Take water, mix with wood pulp, and freeze. Now it’s as strong and tough as concrete, as long as it stays frozen. So, in World War II, serious plans were afoot to use it to build battleships out of ice.
Death chemist
Thomas Midgley Jr. was responsible for two of the most environmentally damaging inventions of the 20th century. An environmental historian said he “had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history.”
One electron in the universe
A positron can be modelled like an electron that is travelling backwards in time. John Wheeler proposed that this could mean all electrons and positrons in the universe could in fact be the same particle, just bouncing back and forth across time.
Walking on water
Non-Newtonian fluids are usually liquid, but when force is applied they can change to be more solid or more liquid. Oobleck (a mixture of cornstarch and water) behaves like a liquid, but you can walk over it as if you were walking on water.
