Science facts

Science

#1 Lightning strikes produce Ozone, hence the characteristic smell after lightning storms

Ozone, the triple oxygen molecule that acts like a protective stratospheric blanket against ultraviolet rays, is created in nature by lightning. When it strikes, the lightning cracks oxygen molecules in the atmosphere into radicals which reform into ozone. The smell of ozone is very sharp, often described as similar to that of chlorine. This is why you get that “clean” smell sensation after a thunderstorm.

#2 The only two non-silvery metals are gold and copper

The only two non-silvery metals in the world are gold and copper. A metal is defined as an element that readily forms positive ions (cations) and has metallic bonds. These elements have electrons that are loosely held to the atoms, and will readily transfer them.

Most metals’ electrons reflect all colors equally which are in the visible spectrum of light. So those metals appear as white – silver. But, Gold and copper happen to absorb blue and violet light, leaving yellow light of the spectrum. So gold and copper are yellowish in color.

#3 Water expands when freezes, unlike other substances -

Typically, when something is cold, it shrinks. That’s because temperature describes atomic vibration — the more vibration, the more space it takes, hence expansion. Water is an exception. Even though it vibrates less when it’s frozen, the ice occupies more volume. That’s due to the the strange shape of the water molecule.

If you remember your Chemistry 101, the water molecule looks like Mickey Mouse, the oxygen atom sitting at the center (the face) and two hydrogen atoms each at an angle (Mickey’s ears). Because of how oxygen and hydrogen bond, the water molecule is an open structure with a lot of space. When water freezes it releases energy because lots of extra strong bonds can be made. But it does take up more space. And so, ice expands when it freezes. Another interesting fact worth mentioning is that hot water freezes faster than cold water.

#4 Glass is actually a liquid, it just flows very, very slowly.

It’s actually true, Mr. Freeze.

Glass, however, is actually neither a liquid—supercooled or otherwise—nor a solid. It is an amorphous solid—a state somewhere between those two states of matter. And yet glass's liquidlike properties are not enough to explain the thicker-bottomed windows, because glass atoms move too slowly for changes to be visible.

There’s also a thing called metal glass – a class of materials that are three times stronger than titanium and have the elastic modulus of bone, all while being extremely lightweight

#5 Every hydrogen atom in your body is likely to be 13.5 billion years old, since they were created at the birth of the universe

The vast majority of the atoms in your body are quite old. The hydrogen is almost all about 13.7 billion years old (formed in the Big Bang) although some small percentage may be formed from minor causes like spallation of protons (out of other nuclei) by cosmic rays, etc.

The atoms other than hydrogen will have more varied ages, as they were formed in supernovae over the life of the Universe since the Big Bang. By far the largest number of these other atoms (carbon, oxygen, phosphorous, etc) are around 4.6 or 4.7 billion years old, being the remnants of one or more supernovae that occured just before the Sun itself formed (it is often offered as a theory that the gas/dust cloud from which the Sun formed was collapsed by the shock waves of the supernova or supernovae). In addition, some amount of older atoms from prior generations of heavy stars are in there, but just how much is very hard to answer.

A lot of the detective work on the age of the atoms was done by people determining the age of the solar system. A good introductory book for you to read is "From Stone to Star" by Claude Allegre. If you want to delve deeper into the subject, a text on radioactive isotope dating in the geosciences is the place to go .