Solids are strange stuff. Although all of them consists of interlocking particles, some of them are malleable, while others are not. Some of them are naturally transparent, and others opaque. Some will readily dissolve in a liquid, while other are stubbornly stay as they are.

In this article, we explore the reasons why solids are as they are...weird.

There are very few things that we can show as the application of the hard sciences, mostly due to the fact that we take these applied principles for granted. But what if these principles became a matter of life and death? In the days of the Polynesian wayfinders, this is exactly the situation, where mistakes can lead you to isolation in an unforgiving ocean.

But dark as it may be, Disney somehow still manages to put a happy face on it...

Next to gasses, liquids are probably the most things we take for granted in this world. We waste water as if it's an infinite source, but we put no though at all on how much energy is required to bring them into our rivers and taps. Liquids require a lot of energy to manage and manipulate, and this is due to their chemistry and physics.

​May they be water, petrol, or cooking oil, the nature of liquids is a cornerstone to understanding how our world works.

In a previous article, we had mentioned that instead of the popular picture of an electron orbiting a nucleus, the atomic nuclei is actually surrounded by a cloud of its probable positions. Similarly, our popular picture of molecules composed of shared electron orbits are similarly false.

Yes, we know it's weird, but that's what you get when chemistry gets physic-y...

At its surface, the 2016 film Hidden Figures seems to tell the story of the trials and tribulations of three African American women faced while working at NASA in the early days of the Space Race. But the film is more relevant now as the issue of women in science, in general, is still a matter they have yet to be addressed adequately.

This article is an attempt to put into perspective of how women have shaped science and human civilization throughout history.