15 Most Unusual Substances In The World

of the 118 known elements 94 occur naturally on earth this blackish liquid is known as ferrofluid but with increasing scientific knowledge these now combine to form thousands of different compounds that are used across all walks of life not all are as predictable as you might expect and there are some that behave in very strange ways here are the 15 most unusual substances in the world number 15 mysterious Jews found in China in 2013 local residents in Nanjing China didn't know what to think when they noticed this strange mound of whose bubbling in the middle of the street in scenes that were reminiscent of the time when a marshmallow man ghost invaded Manhattan it appeared to be emerging from the sewers below covered an area that was almost 150 feet wide and was emitting a putrid smell authorities were quick to intervene and cordon off the area while at the same time saying was nothing more than soap suds still people were skeptical because nearby homes were evacuated and theories began being shared of what it was it soon transpired that this was actually a type of chemical that was being used to soften soil during the construction of a nearby subway but something had gone wrong with its application and it had been accidentally released the mysterious is soon dissipated back through the cracks from where it had come from but not before making people question whether adequate safety measures were in place for the use of such substances before we go on like this video smash the subscribe button and click the notification bell right now or Slenderman will come from under your bed when you're sleeping [Music] number fourteen hydrophobic materials water covers more than 71% of the Earth's surface and as anyone who's ever owned a smartphone will know it has a habit of getting absolutely everywhere especially those places you least want it to there's a solution to this though with so-called hydrophobic materials the term refers to a range of substances that because of their chemical or structural makeup are able to repel water molecules possibly the most well-known is Teflon which has been used in cooking appliances since the 1940s but it and most others contain fluorocarbons that can be extremely toxic when released in nature the hunt is on to find new hydrophobic substances and some of them are really weird the starting point is often to look at the natural world such as the waxy coatings on leaves or the feathers of birds that swim and try and replicate this in a lab this has led to the design of several substances that don't even let water spread out and is why we're now seeing more water proof technology products that if they get wet you'll see the water just sits on top of them before you wipe it off instead of seeping into the precious internal circuitry number thirteen hexafluoride gas if you're looking for a gas that'll make things float then helium is undoubtedly the number one choice if you're looking for something that does the complete opposite however then sulfur hexafluoride is what you'll need the gas is six times heavier than air and can be used to pull off some surprising tricks the one you may have seen before is when it's pumped into a tank and you can actually float objects like a boat made from aluminum foil on top of it so it appears as if it's floating inhaling this gas also has the opposite effect to helium and will make your voice go much much deeper but it also has useful real-world applications too it's a key component to the construction of Torpedo systems is used in various surgical techniques and is used in combination with air to fill tennis balls and the air bags within popular brands of sneakers use of it is highly restricted though because it's the most potent greenhouse gas that's ever being tested with more than 23,000 times the effect of carbon dioxide and it also poses a health risk because it dissipates air and if you were to enter an area that's full of it you're likely to be asphyxiated before you realize what's happening number 12 gallium gallium was first discovered in 1875 and is the chemical element with an atomic number of 31 unusually for an element with such a relatively small mass it's not known to exist naturally anywhere on earth in deposits of its own and has only ever been found in zinc ores or bauxite it's believed to make up around one five hundredths of the world's mass and is produced for a range of uses by smelting at room temperature it's a silvery blue metal but its melting point is only slightly higher than this at eighty five point five degrees Fahrenheit which means that it'll turn into a liquid simply by holding it in your hand this unusual property means that it's ideal for use in electronics where it is used in the production of circuits and LEDs currently it's unknown if gallium has any positive or negative effects if it's ingested but it's sometimes used as a suspension agent for radioactive particles used in pharmaceuticals these remain solid at room temperature but turn to liquid as soon as they're swallowed and allow for the substance to pass around the body much quicker than other alternatives number eleven memory metal metals are used across a whole range of uses thanks in part to their strength and rigidity through all conditions they face there are some cases though where you might want an object to behave differently in cold temperatures than in hot environments and researchers and material science have developed a substance that's able to do this called memory metal there are a number of different versions each of which is an alloy which means it's made up of more than one metal the most commonly used is natee know which is a combination of nickel and titanium but there are others that include copper zinc and aluminum as well as iron magnesium the amazing thing with these is that they exhibit what's called the shape-memory effect the molecules that they're made from remember the original shape so when they've been bent or distorted all you need to do is heat them up and they'll return to how they were before the most unusual ones though have a two-way shape-memory effect which means that cooling it will make it take on one form whereas heating it will arrange it into another predetermined shape number 10 hot ice if there's one thing we all know about ice baking soda vinegar and a little bit of water it's that it's really cold right it's ideal for adding two drinks to keep them cool in the summer but what if you could make ice that was warm to the touch the surprising thing is that it's really easy to make and you've probably even already got the right ingredients at home but it's probably not the best idea to add it to your drink because it'll have a major effect on the way it tastes hot ice can be created by mixing equal parts of white vinegar and baking soda this is the same way you make a bubbling eruption from a home volcano but if you mix it slowly the powder will eventually dissolve next you keep it over heat until most of the liquid has evaporated and then put it into the fridge until it cools scrape a few crystals from the jar put them in a bowl and then pour the liquid over them and it'll instantly turn to ice before your eyes you can form a large Tower but amazingly if you touch it it'll be hot number nine blowy when you walk down the high street in the dark all of the shop windows are lit with vibrant neon lights but have you ever thought of the amount of power and chemicals that are needed to create these illuminations it's incredibly resource intensive but there's a French company that's looking to change all that called glowy the Parisian startup is looking to harness light sources from a far more natural source bacteria million euros thus far to try and get they've picked a specific species called a Levi's Brio fischeri which is naturally bioluminescent and is present in creatures like the Hawaiian bobtail squid to allow it to glow with a bluish green light the researchers have developed a nutrient gel that the bacteria are suspended in and they continue emitting light for up to three days they hope that soon this time span can be increased indefinitely by improving the gel finding a way to remove waste products and by genetically modifying the bacteria soon it may be possible to replace virtually any lights with this new technique and could help save up to 19% of total energy consumption number 8 artificial spider silk a spider silk is known as being one of the strongest natural substances in the world of course it's usually woven so thin that we can just swat it out of the way but if it was possible to manufacture it to the same thickness as a steel pipe then it would be incredibly tough luckily to do this doesn't require breeding super sized spiders but instead has been a holy grail of researchers around the world who have been searching for ways to create it in a lab a team from the University of Cambridge has now come very close to a solution which they say mimics the strength and stretchiness of spider silk impressively it can be stretched to several times its natural length before breaking but at the same time is tougher than steel or Kevlar using a material like this in products like protective helmets parachutes and even in aircraft design could be a complete game-changer and will increase their strength while at the same time dramatically reducing their weight amazingly the material is 98% water meaning its ingredients are remarkably cheap too number 7 carbon nanotubes a carbon is one of the fundamental building blocks in the world we live in is nanotubes forests it's all around us in the ground and the trees and without it life as we know it wouldn't exist but the more we learn about it the more ways it can be adapted for use a recent development is the creation of carbon nanotubes which are now being used to give incredible strength to objects on a microscopic level they are formed by producing sheets of graphene that are a single atom thick and then rolling them into tubes depending on what they'll be used for they can be single walled when they're less than one nanometer thick or multi walled with many layers and these can be up to 100 times as thick new uses for these structures keep being discovered but their strength and conductivity means that they are currently used in the manufacturing of batteries antennae Sporting Goods rigid structures around cars and boats water filters paints and even electromagnetic shielding it's quite likely that many more technologies will use carbon nanotubes or similarly designed structures and they are seen as one of a new range of materials fit for the future number six Casilla Phila virtually every new construction in the world uses concrete it's a versatile material that can be molded into any shape and hardens into a solid and reliable structure it works well in roads bridges buildings and virtually anything else you can think of and while it absorbs most shocks that go through it it is always susceptible to cracking especially as it ages concrete is often reinforced with steel rods within it and if gaps emerge this can become a real problem when water seeps through and causes the steel to rust researchers from the University of Bath in the UK are exploring a new solution to overcome this problem and if they're successful it could completely change the face of construction forever by adding a bacillus bacteria to it as it's being mixed they've shown in tests that they can actually encourage the concrete to fix itself there are three known species that produce a form of limestone when they're exposed to calcium and carbon dioxide and if they are contained within capsules in the concrete these will dissolve and release the bacteria when a crack forms and they'll get to work filling in the hole so it's virtually as good as new number five starlight tomorrow's world was a TV show that was broadcast on the BBC in the UK between 1965 and to 2003 and showcased brilliant new inventions and designs that they believed would help shape the future society that we live in of the countless things that were exhibited there's one that stands out that was featured in 1990 that had been created by a hairdresser known as starlight it was a material that could withstand extreme heat and if it could be made commercially viable would change the design of a wide range of products from cooking appliances and protective gear to astronautical uses and even for spacecraft in tests it was shown resisting temperatures of up to 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit while completely protecting whatever it was covering despite interest from several companies who wanted to use starlight material the inventor was extremely secretive about his formula and it never reached a commercial stage when he died in 2011 he apparently took his secrets to the grave and unless someone else can find a way to replicate it we may never be able to truly harness its benefits number four magnetic Thinking Putty many a childhood was lost to the joys that come from silly putty it can be stretched molded popped torn and absolutely ruined the upholstery of countless homes but if you only ever had the basic form you were missing out magnetic Thinking Putty is just like the putty that you know and love but with one major difference it contains thousands of tiny microscopic magnets which means that you can make it behave in extraordinary ways when you expose it to a larger magnet it can be controlled and moved from a distance or can have its polarity charged by being next to a strong magnet which means that it itself can then be used as a magnet and pick up metallic objects while it clearly has a number of fun uses this added property gives many other applications too it was for example used on the Apollo missions to hold tools in place in zero-gravity and is also an essential tool to aid with testing underwater pipes and platforms to see where there are leaks or structural damage number three caesium the element caesium was discovered in 1860 and it's unusual properties have led to it becoming an incredibly important compound for devices that are crucial to the modern world it's one of only five metals that are liquid at room temperature and is the most reactive of any metal but it's the isotope sessom 137 which is created during nuclear fission that's particularly useful with a half-life of 30 years the particles and emits are incredibly precise and are used to define the length of a second and of a meter since then sessom has been an integral part of atomic clocks that are accurate to within a second every 15 million years and as a result to the global GPS system that we all rely upon for a range of technologies the largest quantities of cesium are used in drilling fluids but other applications include medical products electricity production and even as a propellant in theoretical ion engines despite the multitude of uses the element is considered to be dangerous because of its extreme reaction to water and its radioactive form can cause severe illness if a person is exposed to it for too long number 2 graphene graphene is the thinnest material that we currently know of but at just one atom thick it'll take a new understanding of physics to create anything thinner it's made from carbon atoms that are arranged in a hexagonal pattern and it has been found to be up to 200 times stronger than steel it's the component of graphite which is used for a multitude of purposes including in pencils which work by scraping the top layer off onto paper but its true potential is only now being fully understood as a brilliant conductor of electrical current and of heat while also being great at absorbing light there are uses across any industry you can think of it's currently either being used or is being explored for use in batteries computer chips and antennas as well as solar cells touchscreens and the technology needed for DNA sequencing after being so familiar with it from pencils it's hard to believe it was only isolated in 2004 and was seen as such an important discovery that the researchers behind it received the Nobel Prize in 2010 number one lutonium plutonium was only first isolated in 1941 but due to its unique properties it has quickly become one of the most influential elements in the world produced by firing deuterons at uranium-238 the silvery radioactive metal was initially used in the most destructive weapons ever made thanks to its instability but it's now mainly used in the production of energy beyond nuclear power plants it's also often used in space probes because it lasts for so long and is what powers nasa's cassini and galileo plutonium is highly radioactive and releases so many beta particles neurons and gamma rays that it's warm to the touch and large pieces can cause water to boil simply by being submerged into it strangely it's not like most other metals it isn't a very good conductor of electrical current or heat doesn't stick to magnets and has a low melting point and a surprisingly high boiling point this is because when ground to a powder it has a fluctuating number of electrons in its outer shell where it can have either four five or six whereas all other metals have a fixed number due to the danger posed by working with plutonium the only uses for it are in weaponry and energy action just a few milligrams for every kilogram of tissue is considered a lethal dose so we're not yet sure if it has any other beneficial applications some researchers believe however that if it can be made safe to use elsewhere it could revolutionize metallurgy which of these did you think was the strangest and can you think of any new uses for any of them that aren't currently happening make sure to let us know in the comment section also check out our other cool stuff showing up on the screen right now see you next time

Channel: Amerikano

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Keywords: substances, materials, unusual substances, bizarre substances, bizarre materials, unusual materials, in the world, metallic glass, gallium metal, periodic table, deadliest substances, michael aranda, optical fibers, me, experiment, most expensive, most expensive materials, most expensive things, on earth, antimatter, diamonds, gold, most valuable material, gems, crystal, rare, elements, viral, new, materials engineering, substances comparison, fancy diamond

Id: NjlFk7XrARU

Length: 19min 14sec (1154 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 19 2020