> Really makes you wonder at what other interesting phenomenon are happening in plain sight we've yet to notice. It happens all the time, and is both exciting

> Really makes you wonder at what other interesting phenomenon are happening in plain sight we've yet to notice. It happens all the time, and is both exciting and a little worrying (because it implies that basic effects that we should already understand, we actually seem to misunderstand quite often). As an example of this, we didn't have a full explanation for why alkali metals seem to explode when you put them on water until YouTube when Phil Mason (thunderf00t) started working on it[1] -- the classic explanation was that it was because of the hydrogen gas released, but this didn't make sense because they would also explode under water. There was a Nature article about it[2], but the gist of it is that once the alkali metal melts and sheds its oxide surface due to the high heat of the reaction there are solviated electrons in the water that attract the metal surface and causes spikes to shoot out from the metal which then cause more spikes and then it all goes bang (because reactions can only happen on the interface -- having more surface area causes more of a reaction) once the surface tension breaks. This also explains why thermite explodes when you put it on ice and similar effects. And the solution to stop these sorts of explosions (which are obviously a hazard for people who work with alkali metals) is to add a weak surfactant (like soap). [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmlAYnFF_s8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmlAYnFF_s8 [2]: https://www.nature.com/news/sodium-s-explosive-secrets-revealed-1.16771 https://www.nature.com/news/sodium-s-explosive-secrets-revea...