Unusual substances. The most amazing substances

In this (2007 - P.Z.) year we want to tell you, dear readers, about water. This series of articles will be called: the water cycle. There’s probably no point in talking about how important this substance is for everyone. natural sciences and for each of us. It is no coincidence that many are trying to capitalize on interest in water, take, for example, the sensational film “The Great Mystery of Water,” which attracted the attention of millions of people. On the other hand, we cannot simplify the situation and say that we know everything about water; this is not at all true, water was and remains the most unusual substance in the world. To consider the features of water in detail, a detailed conversation is needed. And we begin it with chapters from the wonderful book of the founder of our journal, Academician I.V. Petryanova-Sokolov, which was published by the Pedagogika publishing house in 1975. This book, by the way, may well serve as an example of a popular science conversation between a prominent scientist and such a difficult reader as a high school student.

Is everything already known about water?

More recently, in the 30s of our century, chemists were confident that the composition of water was well known to them. But one day one of them had to measure the density of the remaining water after electrolysis. He was surprised: the density turned out to be several hundred thousandths higher than normal. There is nothing insignificant in science. This insignificant difference required an explanation. As a result, scientists have discovered many great new secrets of nature. They learned that water is very complex. New isotopic forms of water have been found. Extracted from ordinary heavy water; It turned out that it is absolutely necessary for the energy of the future: in a thermonuclear reaction, deuterium released from a liter of water will provide as much energy as 120 kg of coal. Now, in all countries of the world, physicists are working hard and tirelessly to solve this great problem. And it all started with a simple measurement of the most ordinary, everyday and uninteresting value - the density of water was measured more accurately by an extra decimal place. Each new, more accurate measurement, each new correct calculation, each new observation not only increases confidence in the knowledge and reliability of what has already been obtained and known, but also expands the boundaries of the unknown and not yet known and paves new paths to them.

What is ordinary water?

There is no such water in the world. There is no ordinary water anywhere. She is always extraordinary. Even the isotopic composition of water in nature is always different. The composition depends on the history of water - on what happened to it in the endless variety of its cycle in nature. During evaporation, water is enriched in protium, and rain water is therefore different from lake water. The river water is not like sea ​​water. The water in closed lakes contains more deuterium than the water in mountain streams. Each source has its own isotopic composition of water. When the water in the lake freezes in winter, no one who skates suspects that the isotopic composition of the ice has changed: the content of heavy hydrogen has decreased, but the amount of heavy oxygen has increased. The water from melting ice is different and different from the water from which the ice was derived.

What is light water?

This is the same water whose formula is known to all schoolchildren - H 2 16 O. But there is no such water in nature. Scientists prepared this water with great difficulty. They needed it to accurately measure the properties of water, and primarily to measure its density. So far, such water exists only in a few of the largest laboratories in the world, where the properties of various isotopic compounds are studied.

What is heavy water?

And this water does not exist in nature. Strictly speaking, it would be necessary to call heavy water consisting only of the heavy isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen, D 2 18 O, but such water is not even available in scientists’ laboratories. Of course, if science or technology needs this water, scientists will be able to find a way to get it: as much deuterium and heavy oxygen in natural water as they want.

In science and nuclear engineering, it is customary to conventionally call heavy hydrogen water heavy water. It contains only deuterium, it does not contain the usual, light isotope of hydrogen. The oxygen isotope composition in this water usually corresponds to the composition of oxygen in the air.

Just recently, no one in the world suspected that such water existed, but now in many countries of the world there are giant factories that process millions of tons of water to extract deuterium from it and produce clean heavy water.

Are there many different types of water contained in water?

In what water? In the one that flows from the water tap, where it came from the river, heavy water D 2 16 O is about 150 g per ton, and heavy oxygen water (H 2 17 O and H 2 18 O together) is almost 1800 g per ton of water. And in the water from Pacific Ocean heavy water almost 165 g per ton.

In a ton of ice from one of the large glaciers of the Caucasus, there is 7 g more heavy water than in river water, and the same amount of heavy oxygen water. But in the water of the streams running along this glacier, D 2 16 O turned out to be 7 g less, and H 2 18 O - 23 g more than in the river water.

Tritium water T 2 16 O falls to the ground along with precipitation, but it is very small - only 1 g per million million tons of rainwater. There is even less of it in ocean water.

Strictly speaking, water is always and everywhere different. Even snow that falls on different days has a different isotopic composition. Of course, the difference is small, only 1-2 g per ton. But, perhaps, it is very difficult to say whether this is a little or a lot.

What is the difference between light natural and heavy water?

The answer to this question will depend on who it is asked to. Each of us has no doubt that he is familiar with water. If each of us is shown three glasses with ordinary, heavy and light water, then each will give a completely clear and definite answer: all three vessels contain simple, clean water. It is equally transparent and colorless. There is no difference in taste or smell between them. It's all water. A chemist will answer this question in almost the same way: there is almost no difference between them. All of them Chemical properties almost indistinguishable: in each of these waters, sodium will equally release hydrogen, each of them will decompose equally during electrolysis, all their chemical properties will almost coincide. This is understandable: after all, their chemical composition is the same. This is water.

The physicist will disagree. He will point out a noticeable difference in their physical properties: they boil and freeze at different temperatures, their density is different, their vapor pressure is also slightly different. And during electrolysis they decompose at different rates. Light water is a little faster, and heavy water is a little slower. The difference in speeds is negligible, but the remaining water in the electrolyzer turns out to be slightly enriched with heavy water. This is how it was discovered. Changes in the isotopic composition have little effect on the physical properties of the substance. Those that depend on the mass of molecules change more noticeably, for example, the diffusion rates of vapor molecules.

The biologist will probably be at a dead end and will not immediately be able to find the answer. He will need to work a lot more on the question of the difference between water with different isotopic compositions. More recently, everyone believed that living beings could not live in heavy water. They even called it dead water. But it turned out that if you very slowly, carefully and gradually replace protium in the water where some microorganisms live with deuterium, then you can accustom them to heavy water and they will live and develop well in it, while ordinary water will become harmful to them.

How many water molecules are there in the ocean?

One. And this answer is not exactly a joke. Of course, anyone can, by looking at a reference book and finding out how much water there is in the World Ocean, easily calculate how many H2O molecules it contains. But such an answer will not be entirely correct. Water is a special substance. Due to their unique structure, individual molecules interact with each other. A special chemical bond due to the fact that each of the hydrogen atoms of one molecule attracts electrons from oxygen atoms in neighboring molecules. Due to this hydrogen bond, each water molecule is quite tightly bound to four neighboring molecules.

How are water molecules in water built?

Unfortunately, this very important issue has not yet been sufficiently studied. The structure of molecules in liquid water is very complex. When ice melts, its network structure is partially preserved in the resulting water. The molecules in melt water consist of many simple molecules - aggregates that retain the properties of ice. As the temperature rises, some of them disintegrate and their sizes become smaller.

Mutual attraction leads to the fact that the average size of a complex water molecule in liquid water significantly exceeds the size of a single water molecule. So extraordinary molecular structure water determines its extraordinary physicochemical characteristics.

What should the density of water be?

Isn't that a very strange question? Remember how the unit of mass was established - one gram. This is the mass of one cubic centimeter water. This means that there can be no doubt that the density of water should only be what it is. Can there be any doubt about this? Can. Theorists have calculated that if water did not retain a loose, ice-like structure in the liquid state and its molecules were tightly packed, then the density of water would be much higher. At 25°C it would be equal not to 1.0, but to 1.8 g/cm3.

At what temperature should water boil?

This question is also, of course, strange. That's right, at a hundred degrees. Everyone knows this. Moreover, it is the boiling point of water at normal atmospheric pressure and was chosen as one of the reference points of the temperature scale, conventionally designated 100°C. However, the question is posed differently: at what temperature should water boil? After all, the boiling temperatures of various substances are not random. They depend on the position of the elements that make up their molecules in Mendeleev’s periodic table.

If we compare chemical compounds of different elements with the same composition that belong to the same group of the periodic table, it is easy to notice that the lower the atomic number of an element, the lower its atomic weight, the lower the boiling point of its compounds. Water by chemical composition may be called an oxygen hydride. H 2 Te, H 2 Se and H 2 S are chemical analogues of water. If we determine the boiling point of oxygen hydride by its position in the periodic table, it turns out that water should boil at -80°C. Therefore, water boils approximately one hundred and eighty degrees higher than it should boil. The boiling point of water, its most common property, turns out to be extraordinary and surprising.

At what temperature does water freeze?

Isn't it true that the question is no less strange than the previous ones? Well, who doesn’t know that water freezes at zero degrees? This is the second reference point of the thermometer. This is the most common property of water. But even in this case, one can ask: at what temperature should water freeze in accordance with its chemical nature? It turns out that oxygen hydride, based on its position in the periodic table, would have to solidify at one hundred degrees below zero.

From the fact that the melting and boiling points of oxygen hydride are its anomalous properties, it follows that under the conditions of our Earth its liquid and solid states are also anomalous. Only the gaseous state of water should be normal.

How many gaseous states of water are there?

Only one thing - steam. Is there only one pair? Of course not, there are as many water vapors as there are different types of water. Water vapors, different in isotopic composition, have, although very similar, but still different properties: they have different densities, at the same temperature they differ slightly in elasticity in the saturated state, they have slightly different critical pressures, different diffusion rate.

Can water remember?

This question sounds, admittedly, very unusual, but it is quite serious and very important. It concerns a large physico-chemical problem, which in its most important part has not yet been investigated. This question has just been posed in science, but it has not yet found an answer to it.

The question is whether or not the previous history of water influences its physical and chemical properties and whether it is possible, by studying the properties of water, to find out what happened to it earlier - to make the water itself “remember” and tell us about it. Yes, perhaps, as surprising as it may seem. The easiest way to understand this is with a simple, but very interesting and extraordinary example - the memory of ice.

Ice is water after all. When water evaporates, the isotopic composition of water and steam changes. Light water evaporates, although to an insignificant extent, faster than heavy water.

When natural water evaporates, the composition changes in the isotopic content of not only deuterium, but also heavy oxygen. These changes in the isotopic composition of steam have been very well studied, and their dependence on temperature has also been well studied.

Recently, scientists performed a remarkable experiment. In the Arctic, in the thickness of a huge glacier in northern Greenland, a borehole was sunk and a giant ice core almost one and a half kilometers long was drilled and extracted. The annual layers of growing ice were clearly visible on it. Along the entire length of the core, these layers were subjected to isotopic analysis, and based on the relative content of heavy isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen - deuterium and 18 O - the temperatures of formation of annual ice layers in each section of the core were determined. The date of formation of the annual layer was determined by direct counting. In this way, the climate situation on Earth was restored for a millennium. Water managed to remember and record all this in the deep layers of the Greenland glacier.

As a result of isotope analyzes of ice layers, scientists constructed a climate change curve on Earth. It turned out that our average temperature is subject to secular fluctuations. It was very cold in the 15th century, at the end of the 17th century and in early XIX. The hottest years were 1550 and 1930.

What the water retained in memory completely coincided with the records in historical chronicles. The periodicity of climate change detected from the isotopic composition of ice makes it possible to predict the average temperature in the future on our planet.

This is all completely understandable and clear. Although the thousand-year chronology of weather on Earth, recorded in the thickness of the polar ice cap, is very surprising, the isotope balance has been studied quite well and there are no mysterious problems in this yet.

Then what is the mystery of the “memory” of water?

The point is that last years Science gradually accumulated many amazing and completely incomprehensible facts. Some of them are firmly established, others require quantitative, reliable confirmation, and all of them are still waiting to be explained.

For example, no one yet knows what happens to water flowing through a strong magnetic field. Theoretical physicists are absolutely sure that nothing can and will not happen to it, reinforcing their conviction with completely reliable theoretical calculations, from which it follows that after the cessation of action magnetic field the water should instantly return to its previous state and remain as it was. And experience shows that it changes and becomes different.

From ordinary water in a steam boiler, dissolved salts, released, are deposited in a dense and hard, like a stone, layer on the walls of the boiler pipes, and from magnetized water (as it is now called in technology) they fall out in the form of a loose sediment suspended in the water. It seems like the difference is small. But it depends on the point of view. According to workers at thermal power plants, this difference is extremely important, since magnetized water ensures normal and uninterrupted operation of giant power plants: the walls of steam boiler pipes do not become overgrown, heat transfer is higher, and electricity generation is higher. Magnetic water treatment has long been installed at many thermal power plants, but neither engineers nor scientists know how and why it works. In addition, it has been observed experimentally that after magnetic treatment of water, the processes of crystallization, dissolution, adsorption are accelerated in it, and wetting changes... however, in all cases the effects are small and difficult to reproduce. But how can one evaluate in science what is little and what is much? Who will undertake to do this? The effect of a magnetic field on water (necessarily fast-flowing) lasts for small fractions of a second, and the water “remembers” this for tens of hours. Why is unknown. In this matter, practice is far ahead of science. After all, it is not even known what exactly magnetic treatment affects - water or the impurities contained in it. There is no such thing as pure water.

The “memory” of water is not limited to the preservation of the effects of magnetic influence. In science, many facts and observations exist and are gradually accumulating, showing that water seems to “remember” that it was previously frozen. Melt water, recently formed by melting a piece of ice, also seems to be different from the water from which this piece of ice was formed. In melt water, seeds germinate faster and better, sprouts develop faster; It even seems that chickens that receive melt water grow and develop faster. In addition to the amazing properties of melt water, established by biologists, purely physical and chemical differences are also known, for example, melt water differs in viscosity, in value dielectric constant. The viscosity of melt water takes on its usual value for water only 3-6 days after melting. Why this is so (if it is so), no one knows either. Most researchers call this area of ​​phenomena the “structural memory” of water, believing that all these strange manifestations of the influence of the previous history of water on its properties are explained by changes in the fine structure of its molecular state. Maybe this is so, but... to name it does not mean to explain it. There is still an important problem in science: why and how water “remembers” what happened to it.

Does water know what is happening in space?

This question touches on an area of ​​such extraordinary, so mysterious, so far completely incomprehensible, observations that they fully justify the figurative formulation of the question. Experimental facts seem to be firmly established, but an explanation for them has not yet been found.

The astonishing mystery to which the question relates was not immediately established. It refers to an inconspicuous and seemingly trivial phenomenon that has no serious significance. This phenomenon is associated with the most subtle and still incomprehensible properties of water, difficult to quantify - with the rate of chemical reactions in aqueous solutions and mainly with the rate of formation and precipitation of sparingly soluble reaction products. This is also one of the countless properties of water.

So, for the same reaction, carried out under the same conditions, the time of appearance of the first traces of sediment is not constant. Although this fact was known a long time ago, chemists did not pay attention to it, being satisfied, as is still often the case, with an explanation of “random causes.” But gradually, as the theory of reaction rates developed and research methods improved, this strange fact began to cause confusion.

Despite the most careful precautions in carrying out the experiment under completely constant conditions, the result is still not reproduced: sometimes a precipitate appears immediately, sometimes you have to wait quite a long time for its appearance.

It would seem that it doesn’t matter whether a precipitate forms in a test tube in one, two or twenty seconds? What difference could this make? But in science, as in nature, nothing is unimportant.

The strange irreproducibility occupied scientists more and more. And finally, a completely unprecedented experiment was organized and carried out. Hundreds of volunteer chemical researchers in all parts globe according to a single, pre-developed program, at the same time, at the same moment in world time, the same simple experiment was repeated over and over again: the rate of appearance of the first traces of solid phase sediment formed as a result of the reaction in aqueous solution. The experiment lasted almost fifteen years, more than three hundred thousand repetitions were carried out.

Gradually, an amazing picture began to emerge, inexplicable and mysterious. It turned out that the properties of water, which determine the occurrence of a chemical reaction in an aquatic environment, depend on time.

Today the reaction proceeds completely differently than it did at the same moment yesterday, and tomorrow it will proceed differently again.

The differences were small, but they existed and required attention, research and scientific explanation.

The results of statistical processing of the materials from these observations led scientists to a striking conclusion: it turned out that the dependence of the reaction rate on time for different parts the globe is exactly the same.

This means that there are some mysterious conditions that are changing simultaneously throughout our entire planet and affecting the properties of water.

Further processing of the materials led scientists to an even more unexpected consequence. It turned out that the events taking place on the Sun are somehow reflected on the water. The nature of the reaction in water follows a rhythm solar activity- appearance of sunspots and flares on the Sun.

But this is not enough. An even more incredible phenomenon was discovered. Water in some inexplicable way responds to what is happening in space. A clear dependence was established on changes in the relative speed of the Earth in its movement in outer space.

The mysterious connection between water and events occurring in the Universe is still inexplicable. What significance might the connection between water and space have? No one can yet know how big it is. Our body is about 75% water; there is no life on our planet without water; in every living organism, in every cell of it, countless chemical reactions. If the example of a simple and crude reaction shows the influence of events in space, then it is still impossible to even imagine how great the significance of this influence on global processes development of life on Earth. The science of the future - cosmobiology - will probably be very important and interesting. One of its main sections will be the study of the behavior and properties of water in a living organism.

Are all the properties of water understood by scientists?

Of course not! Water is a mysterious substance. Until now, scientists cannot yet understand and explain many of its properties.

Can there be any doubt that all such mysteries will be successfully resolved by science? But many new, even more amazing, mysterious properties of water - the most extraordinary substance in the world - will be discovered.

http://wsyachina.narod.ru/physics/aqua_1.html

There are many amazing things and unusual materials in the world, but these may well qualify for participation in the category “the most amazing among those invented by people.” Of course, these substances “violate” the rules of physics only at first glance; in fact, everything has long been scientifically explained, although this does not make the substances any less surprising.

Substances that violate the rules of physics:

1. Ferrofluid is a magnetic fluid from which very interesting and intricate figures can be formed. However, while there is no magnetic field, the ferrofluid is viscous and unremarkable. But as soon as you influence it with the help of a magnetic field, its particles line up along the lines of force - and create something indescribable...

2. Airgel Frozen Smoke(“Frozen smoke”) consists of 99 percent air and 1 percent silicon anhydride. The result is some pretty impressive magic, with bricks floating in the air and all that. In addition, this gel is also fireproof.

Being almost invisible, the airgel can hold almost incredible weights, which is 4000 times the volume of the substance consumed, and it itself is very light. It is used in space: for example, to “catch” dust from the tails of comets and to “insulate” astronauts’ suits. In the future, scientists say, it will appear in many homes: a very convenient material.

3.Perfluorocarbon is a liquid that holds a large amount of oxygen, and which, in fact, can be breathed. The substance was tested back in the 60s of the last century: on mice, demonstrating a certain degree of effectiveness. Unfortunately, only a certain one: laboratory mice died after several hours spent in containers with liquid. Scientists have come to the conclusion that impurities are to blame...

Today, perfluorocarbons are used for ultrasound examinations and even to create artificial blood. Under no circumstances should the substance be used uncontrollably: it is not the most environmentally friendly. The atmosphere, for example, “heats” 6500 times more actively than carbon dioxide.

4.Elastic conductors are produced from a “mix” of ionic liquid and carbon nanotubes. Scientists cannot get enough of this invention: after all, in fact, these conductors can stretch without losing their properties, and then return to their original size, as if nothing had happened. And this gives reason to seriously think about all sorts of elastic gadgets.

5. Non-Newtonian fluid- this is a liquid on which you can walk: when force is applied, it hardens. Scientists are looking to harness this ability of non-Newtonian fluids to develop military equipment and uniforms. So that soft and comfortable fabric becomes hard under the influence of a bullet - and turns into a bulletproof vest.

6. Transparent Aluminum Oxide and at the same time, they plan to use the strong metal both to create more advanced military equipment, and in the automotive industry and even in the production of windows. Why not: it is visible well, and at the same time it does not break.

7.Carbon nanotubes were already present in the fourth paragraph of the article, and now - new meeting. And all because their possibilities are really wide, and you can talk about all sorts of delights for hours. In particular, it is the most durable of all materials invented by man.

With the help of this material, ultra-strong threads, ultra-compact computer processors and much, much more are already being created, and in the future the pace will only increase: super-efficient batteries, even more efficient solar panels and even a cable for the space elevator of the future...

8.Hydrophobic sand and hydrophobicity is physical property a molecule that “seeks” to avoid contact with water. The molecule itself in this case is called hydrophobic.

Hydrophobic molecules are usually non-polar and “prefer” to be among other neutral molecules and non-polar solvents. Therefore, water on a hydrophobic surface with a high contact angle collects into droplets, and oil, entering a reservoir, is distributed over its surface.

Most people can easily name the three classical states of matter: liquid, solid, and gas. Those who know a little science will add plasma to these three. But over time, scientists have expanded the list of possible states of matter beyond these four. In the process, we learned a lot about the Big Bang, lightsabers, and the secret state of matter hidden in the humble chicken.

Amorphous solids are a rather interesting subset of the well-known solid state. In a normal solid object, the molecules are well organized and don't have much room to move. This gives the solid a high viscosity, which is a measure of resistance to flow. Liquids, on the other hand, have a disorganized molecular structure that allows them to flow, spread, change shape, and take on the shape of the container they are in. Amorphous solids are somewhere in between these two states. During the process of vitrification, liquids cool and their viscosity increases until the substance no longer flows like a liquid, but its molecules remain disordered and do not take on a crystalline structure like normal solids.

The most common example of an amorphous solid is glass. For thousands of years, people have made glass from silicon dioxide. When glassmakers cool silica from its liquid state, it does not actually solidify when it drops below its melting point. As the temperature drops, the viscosity increases and the substance appears harder. However, its molecules still remain disordered. And then the glass becomes amorphous and hard at the same time. This transitional process allowed artisans to create beautiful and surreal glass structures.

What is the functional difference between amorphous solids and ordinary solid state? IN Everyday life it's not particularly noticeable. Glass appears completely solid until you examine it. molecular level. And the myth that glass drips over time is not worth a penny. Most often, this myth is supported by the argument that old glass in churches seems thicker at the bottom, but this is due to imperfections in the glassblowing process at the time the glass was created. However, studying amorphous solids like glass is interesting from a scientific point of view for research phase transitions and molecular structure.

Supercritical fluids (fluids)

Most phase transitions occur at a certain temperature and pressure. It is common knowledge that an increase in temperature eventually turns a liquid into a gas. However, when pressure increases along with temperature, the liquid makes the leap into the realm of supercritical fluids, which have the properties of both a gas and a liquid. For example, supercritical fluids can pass through solids like a gas, but can also act as a solvent like a liquid. Interestingly, a supercritical fluid can be made more like a gas or more like a liquid, depending on the combination of pressure and temperature. This has allowed scientists to find many applications for supercritical fluids.

Although supercritical fluids are not as common as amorphous solids, you probably interact with them just as often as you interact with glass. Supercritical carbon dioxide is loved by brewing companies for its ability to act as a solvent when reacting with hops, and coffee companies use it to make the best decaf coffee. Supercritical fluids have also been used to make hydrolysis more efficient and to allow power plants to operate at higher temperatures. In general, you probably use supercritical fluid byproducts every day.

Degenerate gas

While amorphous solids are at least found on planet Earth, degenerate matter is only found in certain types of stars. A degenerate gas exists when the external pressure of a substance is determined not by temperature, as on Earth, but by complex quantum principles, in particular the Pauli principle. Because of this, the external pressure of the degenerate substance will be maintained even if the temperature of the substance drops to absolute zero. Two main types of degenerate matter are known: electron-degenerate and neutron-degenerate matter.

Electronically degenerate matter exists mainly in white dwarfs. It forms in the core of a star when the mass of matter around the core tries to compress the core's electrons to a lower energy state. However, according to the Pauli principle, two identical particles cannot be in the same energy state. Thus, the particles "push" the matter around the nucleus, creating pressure. This is only possible if the star's mass is less than 1.44 solar masses. When a star exceeds this limit (known as the Chandrasekhar limit), it simply collapses into a neutron star or black hole.

When a star collapses and becomes a neutron star, it no longer has electron-degenerate matter, it is made of neutron-degenerate matter. Because a neutron star is heavy, electrons fuse with protons in its core to form neutrons. Free neutrons (neutrons not bound in the atomic nucleus) have a half-life of 10.3 minutes. But in the core of a neutron star, the mass of the star allows neutrons to exist outside the cores, forming neutron-degenerate matter.

Other exotic forms of degenerate matter may also exist, including strange matter, which can exist in the rare stellar form of quark stars. Quark stars are a stage between a neutron star and a black hole, where the quarks in the core are decoupled and form a soup of free quarks. We have not yet observed this type of star, but physicists admit their existence.

Superfluidity

Let's return to Earth to discuss superfluids. Superfluidity is a state of matter that exists in certain isotopes of helium, rubidium and lithium cooled to near absolute zero. This state is similar to a Bose-Einstein condensate (Bose-Einstein condensate, BEC), with a few differences. Some BECs are superfluids, and some superfluids are BECs, but not all are identical.

Liquid helium is known for its superfluidity. When helium is cooled to the "lambda point" of -270 degrees Celsius, part of the liquid becomes superfluid. If you cool most substances to a certain point, the attraction between atoms overcomes the thermal vibrations in the substance, allowing them to form a solid structure. But helium atoms interact with each other so weakly that they can remain liquid at a temperature of almost absolute zero. It turns out that at this temperature the characteristics of individual atoms overlap, giving rise to strange superfluidity properties.

Superfluids have no internal viscosity. Superfluids placed in a test tube begin to creep up the sides of the test tube, seemingly defying the laws of gravity and surface tension. Liquid helium leaks easily because it can slip through even microscopic holes. Superfluidity also has strange thermodynamic properties. In this state, substances have zero thermodynamic entropy and infinite thermal conductivity. This means that two superfluids cannot be thermally distinct. If you add heat to a superfluid substance, it will conduct it so quickly that heat waves are formed that are not characteristic of ordinary liquids.

Bose-Einstein condensate

The Bose-Einstein condensate is probably one of the most famous obscure forms of matter. First, we need to understand what bosons and fermions are. A fermion is a particle with half-integer spin (like an electron) or a composite particle (like a proton). These particles obey the Pauli exclusion principle, which allows electron-degenerate matter to exist. A boson, however, has full integer spin, and several bosons can occupy the same quantum state. Bosons include any force-carrying particles (such as photons), as well as some atoms, including helium-4 and other gases. Elements in this category are known as bosonic atoms.

In the 1920s, Albert Einstein drew on the work of Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose to propose new uniform matter. Einstein's original theory was that if you cooled certain elemental gases to a temperature a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, their wave functions would merge to create one "superatom." Such a substance will exhibit quantum effects at the macroscopic level. But it wasn't until the 1990s that the technologies needed to cool elements to such temperatures emerged. In 1995, scientists Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman were able to combine 2,000 atoms into a Bose-Einstein condensate that was large enough to be seen with a microscope.

Bose-Einstein condensates are closely related to superfluids, but also have their own set of unique properties. It's also funny that BEC can slow down the normal speed of light. In 1998, Harvard scientist Lene Howe was able to slow light to 60 kilometers per hour by shining a laser through a cigar-shaped BEC sample. In later experiments, Howe's group was able to completely stop the light in the BEC by turning off the laser as the light passed through the sample. These opened up a new field of communications based on light and quantum computing.

Jahn–Teller metals

Jahn-Teller metals are the newest baby in the world of states of matter, as scientists were only able to successfully create them for the first time in 2015. If the experiments are confirmed by other laboratories, these metals could change the world, since they have the properties of both an insulator and a superconductor.

Scientists led by chemist Cosmas Prassides experimented by introducing rubidium into the structure of carbon-60 molecules (commonly known as fullerenes), which caused the fullerenes to take on a new form. This metal is named after the Jahn-Teller effect, which describes how pressure can change the geometric shape of molecules into new electronic configurations. In chemistry, pressure is achieved not only by compressing something, but also by adding new atoms or molecules to a pre-existing structure, changing its basic properties.

When Prassides' research group began adding rubidium to carbon-60 molecules, the carbon molecules changed from insulators to semiconductors. However, due to the Jahn-Teller effect, the molecules tried to stay in the old configuration, creating a substance that tried to be an insulator but had the electrical properties of a superconductor. The transition between insulator and superconductor had never been considered until these experiments began.

The interesting thing about Jahn-Teller metals is that they become superconductors at high temperatures (-135 degrees Celsius, rather than the usual 243.2 degrees). This brings them closer to acceptable levels for mass production and experimentation. If confirmed, we may be one step closer to creating superconductors that operate at room temperature, which in turn will revolutionize many areas of our lives.

Photonic matter

For many decades, it was believed that photons were massless particles that did not interact with each other. However, over the past few years, scientists at MIT and Harvard have discovered new ways to "give" light mass—and even create "" that bounce off each other and bind together. Some considered this to be the first step towards creating a lightsaber.

The science of photonic matter is a little more complicated, but it is quite possible to comprehend. Scientists began creating photonic matter by experimenting with supercooled rubidium gas. When a photon shoots through the gas, it reflects and interacts with rubidium molecules, losing energy and slowing down. After all, the photon leaves the cloud very slowly.

Strange things start to happen when you pass two photons through a gas, creating a phenomenon known as Rydberg block. When an atom is excited by a photon, nearby atoms cannot be excited to the same degree. The excited atom finds itself in the path of the photon. For an atom nearby to be excited by a second photon, the first photon must pass through the gas. Photons do not normally interact with each other, but when they encounter a Rydberg block, they push each other through the gas, exchanging energy and interacting with each other. From the outside, photons appear to have mass and act as a single molecule, although they are actually massless. When the photons come out of the gas, they appear to come together, like a molecule of light.

The practical application of photonic matter is still in question, but it will certainly be found. Perhaps even lightsabers.

Disordered superuniformity

When trying to determine whether a substance is in a new state, scientists look at the structure of the substance as well as its properties. In 2003, Salvatore Torquato and Frank Stillinger of Princeton University proposed a new state of matter known as disordered superuniformity. Although this phrase seems like an oxymoron, at its core it suggests a new type of substance that appears disordered when viewed closely, but is hyper-uniform and structured from afar. Such a substance must have the properties of a crystal and a liquid. At first glance, this already exists in plasmas and liquid hydrogen, but recently scientists discovered natural example where no one expected: in a chicken eye.

Chickens have five cones in their retina. Four detect color and one is responsible for light levels. However, unlike the human eye or the hexagonal eyes of insects, these cones are randomly distributed, with no real order. This happens because the cones in a chicken's eye have exclusion zones around them, and these do not allow two cones of the same type to be nearby. Due to the exclusion zone and shape of the cones, they cannot form ordered crystalline structures (as in solids), but when all the cones are considered as one, they appear to have a highly ordered pattern, as seen in the Princeton images below. Thus, we can describe these cones in the retina of a chicken eye as a liquid when viewed closely and as a solid substance when viewed from afar. This is different from the amorphous solids we talked about above because this super-homogeneous material will act as a liquid while an amorphous solid will not.

Scientists are still investigating this new state of matter because it may also be more common than originally thought. Now scientists at Princeton University are trying to adapt such superhomogeneous materials to create self-organizing structures and light detectors that respond to light of a specific wavelength.

String networks

What state of matter is the vacuum of space? Most people don't think about it, but in the last ten years, Xiao Gang-Wen of MIT and Michael Levine of Harvard have proposed a new state of matter that could lead us to the discovery of fundamental particles beyond the electron.

The path to developing a string-network fluid model began in the mid-90s, when a group of scientists proposed so-called quasiparticles, which seemed to appear in an experiment when electrons passed between two semiconductors. There was a commotion because the quasiparticles acted as if they had a fractional charge, which seemed impossible for the physics of that time. Scientists analyzed the data and suggested that the electron is not a fundamental particle of the Universe and that there are fundamental particles that we have not yet discovered. This work brought them the Nobel Prize, but later it turned out that an error in the experiment had crept into the results of their work. Quasiparticles were conveniently forgotten.

But not all. Wen and Levin took the idea of ​​quasiparticles as a basis and proposed a new state of matter, the string-net state. The main property of such a state is quantum entanglement. As with disordered superuniformity, if you look at string-net matter up close, it looks like a disordered collection of electrons. But if you look at it as a whole structure, you will see high order due to the quantum entangled properties of the electrons. Wen and Lewin then expanded their work to cover other particles and entanglement properties.

Working through computer models of the new state of matter, Wen and Levin discovered that the ends of the string nets could produce a variety of subatomic particles, including the legendary "quasiparticles." An even bigger surprise was that when the string-network material vibrates, it does so in accordance with Maxwell's equations for light. Wen and Levin proposed that the cosmos is filled with string networks of entangled subatomic particles, and that the ends of these string networks represent the subatomic particles that we observe. They also suggested that the string-net fluid could provide the existence of light. If the vacuum of space is filled with string-net fluid, it could allow us to combine light and matter.

This may all seem very far-fetched, but in 1972 (decades before the string-net proposals), geologists discovered a strange material in Chile - herbertsmithite. In this mineral, electrons form triangular structures that seem to contradict everything we know about how electrons interact with each other. Additionally, this triangular structure was predicted by the string-network model, and the scientists worked with artificial herbertsmithite to accurately confirm the model.

Quark-gluon plasma

Speaking of the last state of matter on this list, consider the state that started it all: quark-gluon plasma. In the early Universe, the state of matter differed significantly from the classical one. First, a little background.

Quarks are elementary particles, which we find inside hadrons (such as protons and neutrons). Hadrons consist of either three quarks or one quark and one antiquark. Quarks have fractional charges and are held together by gluons, which are exchange particles of the strong nuclear force.

We don't see free quarks in nature, but immediately after Big Bang within a millisecond, free quarks and gluons existed. During this time, the temperature of the Universe was so high that quarks and gluons moved at almost the speed of light. During this period, the Universe consisted entirely of this hot quark-gluon plasma. After another fraction of a second, the Universe cooled enough for heavy particles like hadrons to form, and quarks began to interact with each other and gluons. From that moment on, the formation of the Universe we know began, and hadrons began to bond with electrons, creating primitive atoms.

Already in the modern Universe, scientists have tried to recreate quark-gluon plasma in large particle accelerators. During these experiments, heavy particles such as hadrons collided with each other, creating a temperature at which the quarks separated for a short time. In the course of these experiments, we learned a lot about the properties of quark-gluon plasma, which was completely frictionless and more liquid-like than ordinary plasma. Experiments with exotic states of matter allow us to learn a lot about how and why our Universe formed as we know it.

Based on materials from listverse.com

ZDARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR;)
CAUGHT ON THE INTERNET :)
TEN UNUSUAL SUBSTANCES WITH UNIQUE PROPERTIES ON THE PLANET...
10. The Blackest Matter Known to Man

What happens if you stack the edges of carbon nanotubes on top of each other and alternate layers of them? The result is a material that absorbs 99.9% of the light that hits it. The microscopic surface of the material is uneven and rough, which refracts light and is also a poor reflective surface. After that, try using carbon nanotubes as superconductors in a specific order, which makes them excellent light absorbers, and you'll get a real black storm. Scientists are seriously puzzled by the potential uses of this substance, since, in fact, light is not “lost”, the substance could be used to improve optical devices such as telescopes and even be used for solar cells operating at almost 100% efficiency.

9. The most flammable substance

Lots of things burn at an astonishing rate, such as styrofoam, napalm, and that's just the beginning. But what if there was a substance that could set the earth on fire? On the one hand, this is a provocative question, but it was asked as a starting point. Chlorine trifluoride has the dubious reputation of being a horribly flammable substance, even though the Nazis believed the substance was too dangerous to work with. When people who discuss genocide believe that their purpose in life is not to use something because it is too lethal, it supports careful handling of these substances. They say that one day a ton of the stuff spilled and a fire started, burning 12 inches of concrete and a meter of sand and gravel before it all died down. Unfortunately, the Nazis were right.

8. The most poisonous substance

Tell me, what would you least like to get on your face? This could well be the deadliest poison, which would rightfully take 3rd place among the main extreme substances. Such a poison is indeed different from what burns through concrete, and from the strongest acid in the world (which will soon be invented). Although not entirely true, you have all undoubtedly heard from the medical community about Botox, and thanks to it, the deadliest poison has become famous. Botox uses botulinum toxin, produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and it is very deadly, with the amount of a grain of salt being enough to kill a 200-pound person. In fact, scientists have calculated that spraying just 4 kg of this substance is enough to kill all people on earth. An eagle would probably treat a rattlesnake much more humanely than this poison would treat a person.

7. The hottest substance

There are very few things in the world known to man that are hotter than the inside of a freshly microwaved Hot Pocket, but this stuff looks set to break that record too. Created by colliding gold atoms at nearly the speed of light, the substance is called quark-gluon "soup" and reaches a crazy 4 trillion degrees Celsius, which is almost 250,000 times hotter than the stuff inside the Sun. The amount of energy released in the collision would be enough to melt protons and neutrons, which itself has features you wouldn't even suspect. Scientists say this material could give us a glimpse of what the birth of our universe was like, so it's worth understanding that tiny supernovae aren't created for fun. However, really good news are that the “soup” occupied one trillionth of a centimeter and lasted for a trillionth of one trillionth of a second.

Acid is a terrible substance, one of the scariest monsters in cinema was given acid blood to make him even more terrible than just a killing machine (Alien), so it is ingrained within us that exposure to acid is a very bad thing. If the "aliens" were filled with fluoride-antimony acid, not only would they fall deep through the floor, but the fumes emitted from their dead bodies would kill everything around them. This acid is 21019 times stronger than sulfuric acid and can leak through glass. And it can explode if you add water. And during its reaction, toxic fumes are released that can kill anyone in the room. Perhaps we should move on to another substance...

In fact, this place is currently shared by two components: HMX and heptanitrocubane. Heptanitrocubane mainly exists in laboratories, and is similar to HMX, but has a denser crystal structure, which carries a greater potential for destruction. HMX, on the other hand, exists in large enough quantities that it can threaten physical existence. It is used in solid fuel for rockets, and even for nuclear weapons detonators. And the last one is the worst, because despite how easily it happens in the movies, starting the fission/fusion reaction that results in bright glowing nuclear clouds that look like mushrooms is not an easy task, but HMX does it perfectly.

4. The most radioactive substance

Speaking of radiation, it's worth mentioning that the glowing green "plutonium" rods shown in The Simpsons are just a fiction. Just because something is radioactive doesn't mean it glows. It's worth mentioning because polonium-210 is so radioactive that it glows blue. Former Soviet spy Alexander Litvinenko was misled into having the substance added to his food and died of cancer soon after. This is not something you want to joke about; the glow is caused by the air around the material being affected by radiation, and, in fact, objects around it can heat up. When we say “radiation,” we think, for example, of a nuclear reactor or explosion where a fission reaction actually occurs. This is only the release of ionized particles, and not the out-of-control splitting of atoms.

3. The heaviest substance

If you thought the heaviest substance on Earth was diamonds, it was a good but inaccurate guess. This is a technically engineered diamond nanorod. This is actually a collection of nano-scale diamonds, with the lowest degree of compression and the heaviest substance, known to man. It doesn't actually exist, but that would be pretty handy since it means that someday we could cover our cars with this stuff and just get rid of it when a train collision occurs (not a realistic event). This substance was invented in Germany in 2005 and will probably be used to the same extent as industrial diamonds, except that the new substance is more resistant to wear and tear than regular diamonds. This stuff is even harder than algebra.

2. The most magnetic substance

If the inductor were a small black piece, then it would be the same substance. The substance, developed in 2010 from iron and nitrogen, has magnetic powers that are 18% greater than the previous record holder and is so powerful that it has forced scientists to reconsider how magnetism works. The person who discovered this substance distanced himself from his studies so that no other scientist could reproduce his work, since it was reported that a similar compound was developed in Japan in the past in 1996, but other physicists could not reproduce it, so this substance was not officially accepted. It is unclear whether Japanese physicists should promise to make Sepuku under these circumstances. If this substance can be reproduced, it could mean new Age efficient electronics and magnetic motors, possibly increased in power by an order of magnitude.

1. The strongest superfluidity

Superfluidity is a state of matter (either solid or gaseous) that occurs at extremely low temperatures, has high thermal conductivity (every ounce of that substance must be at exactly the same temperature) and no viscosity. Helium-2 is the most typical representative. The helium-2 cup will spontaneously rise and spill out of the container. Helium-2 will also leak through other solid materials, as the complete lack of friction allows it to flow through other invisible holes that regular helium (or water for that matter) would not leak through. Helium-2 does not come into its proper state at number 1, as if it has the ability to act on its own, although it is also the most efficient thermal conductor on Earth, several hundred times better than copper. Heat moves so quickly through Helium-2 that it travels in waves, like sound (known actually as "second sound"), rather than being dissipated, where it simply moves from one molecule to another. By the way, the forces that control the ability of helium-2 to crawl along the wall are called the “third sound.” You're unlikely to get anything more extreme than a substance that required the definition of 2 new types of sound.
translation for

We can laugh at our ancestors, who considered gunpowder to be magic and did not understand what magnets are, however, even in our enlightened age, there are materials created by science, but similar to the result of real witchcraft. These materials are often difficult to obtain, but are worth it.

1. Metal that melts in your hands

The existence of liquid metals such as mercury and the ability of metals to become liquid at a certain temperature are well known. But solid metal that melts in your hands like ice cream is unusual phenomenon. This metal is called gallium. It melts at room temperature and is unsuitable for practical use. If you place a gallium object in a glass of hot liquid, it will dissolve right before your eyes. In addition, gallium can make aluminum very brittle - simply placing a drop of gallium on an aluminum surface is enough.

2. Gas capable of holding solid objects

This gas is heavier than air, and if you fill a closed container with it, it will settle to the bottom. Just like water, sulfur hexafluoride can withstand less dense objects, such as a tin foil boat. The colorless gas will hold the object on its surface, and it will appear that the boat is floating. Sulfur hexafluoride can be scooped out of the container with an ordinary glass - then the boat will smoothly sink to the bottom.

In addition, due to its gravity, the gas reduces the frequency of any sound passing through it, and if you inhale a little sulfur hexafluoride, your voice will sound like the ominous baritone of Dr. Evil.

3. Hydrophobic coatings

The green tile in the photo is not jelly at all, but tinted water. It is located on a flat plate, along the edges treated with a hydrophobic coating. The coating repels water and the droplets take on a convex shape. There is a perfect raw square in the middle of the white surface and the water collects there. A drop placed on the treated area will immediately flow to the untreated area and merge with the rest of the water. If you dip a finger treated with a hydrophobic coating into a glass of water, it will remain completely dry, and a “bubble” will form around it - the water will desperately try to escape from you. Based on such substances, it is planned to create water-repellent clothing and glass for cars.

4. Spontaneously exploding powder

Triiodine nitride looks like a ball of dirt, but appearances can be deceiving: the material is so unstable that the slightest touch of a pen is enough to cause an explosion. The material is used exclusively for experiments - it is dangerous even to move it from place to place. When the material explodes, it produces a beautiful purple smoke. A similar substance is silver fulminate - it is also not used anywhere and is only suitable for making bombs.

Hot ice, also known as sodium acetate, is a liquid that hardens upon slightest contact. With a simple touch, it instantly transforms from a liquid state into an ice-hard crystal. Patterns are formed on the entire surface, like on windows in frosty weather; the process continues for several seconds until the entire substance “freezes.” When pressed, a crystallization center is formed, from which information about the new state is transmitted to the molecules along the chain. Of course, the end result is not ice at all - as the name suggests, the substance is quite warm to the touch, cools very slowly and is used to make chemical heating pads.

6. Metal with memory

Nitinol, an alloy of nickel and titanium, has the impressive ability to “remember” its original shape and return to it after deformation. All it requires is a little heat. For example, you can drop warm water on the alloy, and it will return to its original shape, no matter how much it was previously distorted. Methods are currently being developed to practical application. For example, it would be reasonable to make glasses from such material - if they accidentally bend, you just need to put them under a stream of warm water. Of course, it is unknown whether cars or anything else serious will ever be made from nitinol, but the properties of the alloy are impressive.