Weirdest Substance In The Known Universe

[FLO]

Apparently - according to an article by Robert Matthews in last months Focus science magazine - prime contender for the Weirdest Substance In The Known Universe is … water! 

… Most substances shrink when they cool, but not water: it expands on freezing.  Most substances are denser as solids than as liquids – but not water: ice floats.  The boiling point of water is utterly unlike any similar liquid, and it requires 10 times more energy to warm it up than solid iron. 

… so far its list of bizarre propertries covers over anomalous characteristics

… Despite years of effort, many of the properties of water defy any detailed explanation. 

The article concludes that waters life-giving properties are intimately linked to so-called zero-point vibrational energy – a form of energy-from-nowhere predicted by quantum theory.  In other words, an omnipresent energy that lurks in the very fabric of space and time. 

Consider that when you next turn on a tap. 

Steve

Check out this website on the subject: www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/index.html

[AndyMac]

Hmmm........... having tuned in to the last edition of 'The Sky at Night' I would put the weirdest substance down as being 'Dark Eneregy' - closely followed by 'Dark Matter'.

[FLO]

… so far its list of bizarre propertries covers over anomalous characteristics

Ooops, that was supposed to read over 40 anomalous characteristics

[FLO]

... I guess it does go some way to explaining the significance of NASA, ESA and others spending millions trying to find the stuff on other planets.

Steve

[FLO]

I would put the weirdest substance down as being 'Dark Eneregy' - closely followed by 'Dark Matter'.

Have we reached the point where these two items are actual fact? It doesn't seem that long ago that I read an article saying they were 'invented' to fill gaps in our understanding and that there is a new theory that doesn't require the existence of Dark Energy or Matter... Perhaps I read too much :?

Steve

[Astroman]

Yes, you do read too much.  And so do I.

No, they're not fact yet, only theory that happens to fit the observed data. But then, epicycles fit the data in the 16th century. Folks that say they were "invented" are mostly skeptics that profer their own theories that are wilder than dark matter/energy.

Another, more stable theory has to do with string theory. The way the strings vibrate through 11 dimensions can explain the accelleration of the universe. Please, don't even ask. Makes my head hurt.

It's all in the march of science. Competing theories sometimes trigger remarkable insight, such as expansion in the early universe and such.

[Adrius]

star dust. is what id say.

[FLO]

star dust. is what id say.

Why?

Steve

[Adrius]

cause its what we are made of, even what water is made out of. find anything weirder then a human itself or yourself, even existence itself? without what you are made of there is no existence of yourself. so can it get any weirder then that? without what you are made of you cant even think up or be here to post about what is weird =p

[AstroTiger]

a lot of the properties of the h20 molecule can be explained by hydrogen bonding that exists between the H and the O.

For eg it is this reason and this reason alone that water is actually a liquid and rtp and not gas, like the other Hydrides in the series.

So thanks to H bonding, life exists? Possibly one of the more important bonds in nature there ladies and genetleman.

Not only this but if you put a wire, with a weight at both ends across a block of ice. The ice will melt due to the increse in pressure, then re freeze again as the wire passes through to the end.

The flaming rubbish i still remeber from my university days!

Yes, i was sad and mad enough to do a chem degree! please DON:T ask me Y

Al

[The Warthog]

If water sank when it froze, life would probably not be able to continue on Earth. Therefore, water is direct proof of the existence of God! (Is he being serious or not, they ask? )

Actually, my candidate for the weirdest substance in the known universe is belly-button lint. After all, where does that stuff come from? There's an inexhaustible supply of it, everybody has some, and it all smells the same. :?

[The Warthog]

Actually, my candidate for the weirdest substance in the known universe is belly-button lint. After all, where does that stuff come from? There's an inexhaustible supply of it, everybody has some, and it all smells the same. :?

Talk about a conversation killer.... :? :shock:

I notice it didn't keep you out of the chat. 8)