Happy Thought for 16 May 2025

Have a Happy Thought: 

There are still things that need to be seen to be believed. In fact, with all of our amazing video and photographic technology, there are some things that cannot be reproduced through a screen!


Yes, I know you are all reading this through a screen, but here are some things to go investigate, if you have the time (and chemistry lab) on hand.


1. The deep, deep blue of sodium or lithium metals dissolving in liquid ammonia. All colours but blue are absorbed by this chemical reaction, leaving an intense shade that, according to photographers, cannot be recreated. See the image below, or check out this video, go to 11:45 for the best pictures. Even better: apparently after a short time, or as you add more metal, the solution starts to turn coppery, and then golden.


Image: http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/md/ipmb/chemie/klein/solvated-electrons.jpg



2. Total Solar Eclipse. I have never been lucky / determined enough to experience this. People that have, often find it an incredible, nearly transcendent experience. And many are inspired to “chase” eclipses in the future, seeking that feeling again.

Image: 2024 Total Solar Eclipse as seen in New York, USA. https://www.newyork.com.au/2024-total-solar-eclipse-in-new-york/


3. Another thing I have not seen with my own eyes is metal alloys forming in a crucible. Apparently the sight of solid metal melting, and then joining with another metal to form something new – like when copper and tin become bronze – is like watching magic. No wonder blacksmiths and metallurgists were held in such high esteem in the past.

Image: bronze being poured from a crucible, from https://youtu.be/ltTaQUY7qi8


4. Colours under the water while scuba diving. Sticking with the theme here, this is something I have not experienced myself. But I have heard time and time again that the colours of tropical fish, coral reefs, and even just the colour of light filtered through clear ocean water is something you can only really experience in the moment.

And then there is when you see something really rare... like this pink manta ray, nicknamed Inspector Clouseau, seen off the Australian coast in 2015.


Inspector Clouseau, the world's only known pink manta ray Kristian Laine / Instagram



5. Speaking of colours, there is a new colour that only a very few people have ever seen. Scientists recently (and very carefully) used lasers to do this. Basically, the way our eyes see colour is we have three types of photoreceptor, and the “colour” our brain interprets is based on how “excited” each of the three types gets. One of those receptors (the M type) “sees” a wavelength of light that is overlapped by what the other two receptors see – so it is never excited just on its own.

Image: from James Fong et al., Novel color via stimulation of individual photoreceptors at population scale.Sci. Adv.11,eadu1052(2025).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adu1052

Scientists used lasers to excite these and only these M photoreceptors, and the participants say they saw a “new” colour – a “blue-green of unprecedented saturation” that is so vivid they called it Oz (like when the Wizard of Oz movie came out in technicolor).



Turns out I still have a lot left to see with my own eyeballs!



If you like the idea of using chemistry to create amazing colours, you can also watch this short video – or just keep it on loop on a second screen, like I have for the last 20 minutes!

https://media.beige.party/media_attachments/files/114/223/209/227/681/541/original/8cded904c2dfce13.mp4


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