165. The Pitch Drop Experiment

Pitch is a very tough substance, used to waterproof boats and traditional burning torches. At room temperature you can shatter it with a hammer. The black substance, so dark that it is the source of the term ‘pitch-black’, seemed to be a solid at room temperature; Professor Thomas Parnell disagreed, and set up one of the longest science experiments ever, to prove his point. This became known a the ‘Pitch Drop Experiment.’

The preparation itself took years, in 1927 he prepared a sample in a sealed funnel, then heated it. Three years later it had cooled and settled down. In 1930 the bottom of the funnel was cut, giving the pitch free sway to plummet downwards under the effects of gravity. So began one of the slowest drips the world has ever witnessed. Each drop takes between eight and nine years to form, but form and fall they did. Professor Thomas Parnell only ever lived past two drops of pitch before his death in 1948. The experiment continued without him.

 

155. AC/DC Sharks

What is the best way to lure a great white shark? The typical response was ‘chum’ – essentially chopped up fish. It turns out the answer may be hard rock classics, such as those from AC/DC. The most effective song is the aptly named – ‘If You Want Blood’.

The use of sound is not totally new, it has been known for a long time that certain sounds can drive off sharks and other animals: in fact sonar from ships is so painful for animals that it is a big factor in causing the beaching of whales. What wasn’t known extensively until now was which sounds were liked by animals.It turns out that, after extensive trial and error, lower frequencies preferred by great white sharks. In particular AC/DC is their favourite, fitting in with their aggressive reputations.

 

153. Holes in the Ocean

In the shallow blue waters of the Bahamas, Belize and others people often remark upon the brightness of the water; lit by the light reflecting off of the white sand beneath. However one can find deviations from the shallow norm, underwater pits where the land drops away. Circular anomalies which suddenly drill deep down, these deeper spaces filled with darker, and decidedly chillier water. This is a ‘Blue Hole.’

Their entrances can be anything from 25 metres to 300 metres across; their darkness is a result of the depths absorbing the light. These peculiarities of the ocean reach up to, or rather down 202 metres, a lengthy vertical cave. The depth and narrowness of these vertical caves also limits their flow. At the base of the blue holes the water has lost all oxygen, making it inhospitable to anything more complex than bacteria.

 

142. Sealand, The Unofficial Prinicipality

The Principality of Sealand is an odd case, it is an old World War II floating fort 10km off the coast of Suffolk, England. In 1956 the fort was abandoned, then in 1967 Major Paddy Roy Bates, along with his family and some associates occupied the fort, claiming it to be a new and separate principality. The Principality Of Sealand. Originally it was set up for the British Mr Bates to broadcast his pirate radio station. However it soon became more.

He crowned himself king. In 1968 some British workmen came to service a navigational buoy nearby. Paddy Bates claimed the waters to be part of his territory and his son Michal Bates, shot a rifle to scare them off. Then they went to court on firearms charges. The case could not proceed. A that time anything within 5km of the shore was part of the United Kingdom, and the fort fell just outside of that jurisdiction. It was in international waters and exempt from the rules.

 

127. Can You Drown In The Dead Sea?

‘It is impossible to drown in the Dead Sea’, ‘No-one has ever drowned in the Dead Sea’ These are the words spoken by tens of thousands of people. Even ABC News, a fairly large news network in American, has published an article talking about the salty bowl of water. How cool, the perfect bathing spot. Well it would be, were it not for that they are all wrong. At best they not thinking about every type of drowning. Although that still makes them wrong.

This misconception arises from the fact that the Dead Sea is one of the most bizarre lakes (yes, LAKE) in the world. It is also the deepest hypersaline (salty) lake in the world. 420m below sea level. As well as being low, lying on the Jordan-Israel border it is also salty to a near excessive degree. Around 9 times as salty as the oceans of the world. The whole lake is 33.7% salt. This does of course, have side-effect.

 

124. Power of The Storm

Hulking storms which dwarf countries. Humongous towering low pressure systems which regularly cause billions of dollars of damage. Hurricanes, how do they do it. The answer is energy. They produce energy on scales barely conceivable.

These structures are greater in size than many countries and are powered by the largest accessible energy reserve on the planet. The warm oceans over which they swirl, siphoning up every last bit of energy. The energy makes them fest, the gorge themselves on it and swell with every moment. However nothing can hold such energy.

So they emit it. In terms of heat and kinetic energy.

Hurricanes emit between 50 and 200 exajoules a day, or 1 Petawatt of power. That is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joules of power. To provide some scale, it is 200 times the electricity generating capacity of the world, and 70 times the rate at which all humans combined on earth use energy.

 

121. George Merryweather’s Tempest Prognosticator

The 19th Century was the true birth of weather in Europe. People now were acknowledging the importance of knowing what might happen with the weather, so devices were designed. One of the most effective and bizarre was the grandly named ‘Tempest Prognosticator’ designed and tested by George Merryweather during 1850.

It was a grand construction, consisting of twelve pint bottles arranged in a circle around the centrepiece, like some bizarre Merry-Go-Round. Out of their tops came a small chain, which fed up through a pulley and each continued towards its own respective, miniature hammer. Between all the hammers was a bell. This bizarre contraption was powered by a not common source of weather knowledge, the Leech.

 

119. Hardiest Animal on Earth

You think you are probably tough right? You probably could outlive a squirrel and outrun a tortoise. But could you survive the vacuum of space?

If you don’t know the answer, let me use science to tell you the answer. Science says NO. Fortunately something does exist which -can- survive in space. That monstrosity of a thing called a Tardigrade. Also known as a Water Bear, yes that is a right. A tiny little bear that can live in space.

 

96. The Hotel of Ice

The Coolest Hotel There Is – ICEHOTEL

ICEHOTEL is a special hotel, as is evidenced by the name it is a hotel, made from ice.

Everything from the ceiling struts right down to the chairs is made from ice, the ice itself dredged in the hundreds of tons from a nearby river. ICEHOTEL is the original, spawning many parallels globally however it remains the greatest, an icon among icons in the world of hotels. But how did it come to be?

ICEHOTEL,when it exists, resides in the small village of Jukkasjärvi, in Sweden. It began simply enough with the Japanese (of course!). In 1989 a group of Japanese ice artists assembled and created a beautiful exhibition of ice art. Then in the following spring of 1990 a cylindrical igloo(the best type of igloo) was constructed. Inside it the French artist Jannot Derid held an exhibition. Visitors came to see it of course, but then there were no spare rooms in the town, so they asked to stay in the ice-cylinder. They slept in sleeping bags on top of reindeer skin. Then, began ICEHOTEL.

The ABSOLUT ICEBAR - where every drink is on the rocks

From that informal opening ICEHOTEL has been constructed every single year using snow and ice from the Torne River. The snow and ice, once extracted are stored in a production hall capable of holding 10,000 tons of ice and 30,000 tons of snow. 1000 tons of the ice are used for construction whilst the rest is used for the elaborate designs in the ABSOLUT ICEBAR, a centre-piece of the hotel in which everything including the drinks glasses are made from ice. Snow is used to help strengthen the ice structure of the hotel and the rest of the ice is used in promotional events and product launches across the world.

Each Ice Hotel is a unique construction made of nothing but water in a few of its forms, a network of free-standing snow corridors and icy walls. Every year construction begins mid November and the structure stands completed from December to April before it is destroyed once more.

One of the custom suites designed for 2011 ICEHOTEL

It is a truly beautiful structure with its own church amongst other things. Every year the hotel is different, with artists submitting design ideas for the interiors and a jury selects the best 50 to construct their imaginings. Once finished the hotel has amassed an area of over 6000m², making it the largest snow and ice construction in the world.

So there we have it, a pure construction of ice containing nothing but the frozen Swedish water, with the exceptions of those repugnantly warm, fleshy meat bags that visit it. A marvellous place indeed, listed as one of the Seven Wonders of Sweden its cold has captured the hearts of the country, and for those cowardly meat bags there is warm accommodation next to the hotel.

To conclude, this is a seriously – cool – hotel. If you can, try visiting, I know I will.

Feel free to click here and visit the ICEHOTEL website for more information.

 

91. Cobwebbed Copses

FACT: Throughout March 2011, there was an unfortunate incident in Pakistan. Devastating flooding that at some points meant that one fifth of the whole country was covered with water. Amongst the many, many lives it affected an indelible mark has been left, many however can continue their lives on normally.

Fortunately it gave rise to a never-before-seen phenomenon, one which saves lives.

Cobwebbed copses, a copse being a small group of trees, of course. In layman’s terms, across Pakistan there were hundreds of trees completely encased by the fine gossamer webs spun by the millions of arachnids resting in their boughs.

The cause of this was obvious, flooding. Floods involve water, and spiders hate water (see the ‘Incey Wincey Spider‘ for confirmation). So to flee the high waters almost every single spider clambered up the nearest tree. The number of spiders was so great in fact that when the time came for the spiders to make their cobwebs, the sheer number of webs wrapped each tree in its own respective ethereal veil, or cocoon. An effect never before seen, even by the Pakistani Elders.

Saving lives. How do they do that? Well I did mention that earlier. Firstly to downsides; the flood left a lot of surface water in many areas of Pakistan, water that had the chance to warm and stagnate, making it the perfect breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. So what one normally sees after floods in poorer countries is a sharp rise in oft-fatal malaria cases. However not so with this flood.

The areas with the most ‘cocooned‘ trees have actually reported below average cases of malaria. This is in part because all of the spiders on the ground were making cobwebs which never caught mosquitoes, but now their webs are in the air, which happens to be the same thing that mosquitoes fly through, so more mosquitoes are caught.

This rare and spooky phenomenon is a wonder to behold and to those in Pakistan,a small blessing but a blessing none-the-less. Evidence that nature in dangerous as well as kind, all whilst being simultaneously unpredictable. Who knows, with floods becoming more common with every passing year (because of that global warming thing), cobwebbed copses may soon pepper every landscape like little flecks of earth dandruff across the world.

Watch out then, the tress may be coming to you soon. Will you welcome them?