Sculpting in Solid Mercury, with Liquid Nitrogen (Popsci.com + BB Video)

READ HOW IT'S DONE HERE!( http://www.popsci.com/mercuryf... )Boing Boing Video teams up with PopSci and Theo Gray ( MAD SCIENCE author) for an eerily beautiful science experiment -- how to cast solid, if fleeting, shapes from normally liquid mercury -- just keep it at 320 degrees below zero, with liquid nitrogen. Snip from Theo's experiment, documented in this video:"What you consider solid, liquid or gas depends entirely on where you live. For example, men from cold, cold Mars might build their houses out of ice. Women from Venus, where the average temperature is about 870°F, could bathe in liquid zinc. We think mercury is a liquid metal, but its all relative. At one temperature, the mercury atoms arrange themselves into a solid crystal; at another, they flow freely around each other as a liquid. Children from Pluto (like mine, for example) could happily cast their toy soldiers out of mercury, because on that frigid planet it is a solid, malleable metal a lot like tin. Here on temperate Earth, you need a stove to cast tin, but a tank of liquid nitrogen to make mercury figurines..." http://www.popsci.com/mercuryf... BOING BOING BLOG POST: http://www.boingboing.net/2009...

Channel: Science & Technology
Uploaded: November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am
Author: boingboingvideo

Length: 03:38
Rating: 4.490196
Views: 167524

Tags: Boingboing popular science popsci mercury frozen theo gray mad dangerous scientific experiment poison explosion freezing chemistry

Video Comments

fernandesilyt(November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Verry cool.

kimpaco(November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

i wanna try boiling mercury

crooksisjosh(November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

@Jfauburn7 Actually Mercury is extremely poisonous if you are exposed to it for long periods of time. Such as playing in it for an hour or so. But what is cool is that you can be completely submerged in it and come out completely dry. SO if you want to play with it, just don't have contact with it for longer than a minute or two.

Jfauburn7(November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

The pure element mercury is not poisonous unless directly put in to the brain, most bad things that come from mucky happen with mucky salts,

miesrah12(November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

try gallium its delicious and non toxic

weizman123(November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

THIS IS FUCKING COOL

antichatboot0(November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

ingesting and amount the size of your pinky finger nail will kill you same for im haling it....Mercury poisening is also where the term "mad hatter" or "Mad as a hatter" because back in the 1800s and ealy 1900s vaporize mercury was used to cure the fabrics, and other materals.

XdarkvampyreX(November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

exactly HOW poisonus is mercury LIKE what would exactly happen if it were spilled ... what would happen from breathing in the fumes what would happen if even just a drop was ingested and is mercurys melting temperature just VERY low ?? id like to know more

Hemitris(November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

why don't you use elemental mercury?

Baseballman1998(November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

thats so freeking awesome