chemistry is cool

The death clock, also known as the ormolu clock, is an ornate clock that had to be mercury gilded, in which a mercury solution was applied to many different metals and then covered by a layer of mercury/gold. Then the clock would be put in an area of extreme heat and the mercury would ultimately melt off leaving a layer of gold that had adhered to the metal underneath

Most of the workers who crafted these clocks died before they were 40. Effects of the mercury were loss of teeth, shutdown of central nervous system, affect your kidneys, and made you generally crazy 

Approximately 20% of all oxygen in the atmosphere is produced from the amazon rainforest? 

remember those potato batteries we used to make when we were younger that would power a little flashing light? well someone made a 500 lb potato battery that could only power a small speaker system

i mean if they sold these i would buy one 

(Source: latteier.com)

Well i feel like a huge ass now because someone recently made a blog called chemcool and we have the same theme as well. i swear i didn’t know i wouldn’t copy off of someone but yeah my apologies go out to everyone 

Experiments show that grapes produce plasma when sliced open and microwaved! Electric discharges between both halves of the grape vaporize the sugars in the grape, causing them to combust. Continuation of the electrical charges (by microwaving them for a longer period of time) may cause the products of the combustion to turn into plasma! Who knew that a common fruit could cause such a reaction?

In addition to simply microwaving the grape, putting a glass over it would produce another reaction that traps the gases in the glass, but ultimately gets destroyed

CAUTION: do not try this at home unless you want to wreck your microwave or burn your house down!