Science Facts About Chemistry

The only letter not appearing on the Periodic Table is the letter "J".

The little bags of netting for gas lanterns (called 'mantles') are radioactive...so much so that they will set of an alarm at a nuclear reactor.

The face of a penny can hold about thirty drops of water.

Viagra dissolved in water can help cut flowers stay fresh longer. Studies found that sildenafil (Viagra's active ingredient) slows the breakdown of cyclic GMP, which helps keep plant stems rigid and delays wilting.

Aluminum used to be more valuable than gold!

If the chemical sodium is dropped into water it will immediately and violently explode.

Scientists from IBM Research in Zurich and the University of Warwick synthesized a molecule named 'Olympicene' that mimics the shape of the Olympic logo.

Pollen never deteriorates. It is one of the few natural substances that lasts indefinitely.

Nylon is made from coal and petroleum.

The reason why old books have such a distinct smell is because hundreds of organic compounds in the pages break down over time and release chemicals that smell like almond, vanilla, and grass.

Iron weighs more after it rusts.

There are more atoms in one teaspoon of water than there are teaspoons of water in the Atlantic Ocean.

The gas that gives rotten eggs their distinctive foul smell may slow ageing and block damaging chemical reactions inside cells, according to scientists in China.

The center of the galaxy tastes like raspberries and smells like rum, according to astronomers.

Workers at a Scottish nuclear facility were decommissioning a plutonium plant, but the expensive industrial cleaners were not working. Then one worker remembered a Cillit Bang TV ad for a £1.99 bathroom cleaner. They tried it. It worked so well that other UK nuclear sites called to ask about it.

When ocean waves glow electric blue at night, the light comes from millions of living creatures. Dinoflagellates - microscopic plankton - carry a chemical called luciferin that flashes the instant water is disturbed. It is a defense: the burst of light summons predators of whatever is eating them. Mosquito Bay on Vieques, Puerto Rico holds the Guinness World Record for the brightest bioluminescent bay, with 700,000 glowing organisms per gallon.