Cool science

The process of distilling water, crude oil or ethyl alcohol
are all based on similar science.  When
two or more chemicals are thoroughly mixed in a liquid, being able to separate
them can be quite a challenge. 

The most popular form of radiation detector used is probably
the Geiger-Mueller (GM) detector.  A GM
detector is typically the device seen being used on TV shows and movies when
measuring radiation.  The GM detector is the
device which is making clicking noises which clicks faster and faster when it
is exposed to increasingly greater amount of radiation.

Currently, burning fossil fuels is the main source of energy
here and around the world.  Those fuels
emitting greenhouse gasses are considered by most associated scientific
organizations in the world as contributing to a potential global catastrophe in
the making.  With this, we are critically
dependent on electricity for almost every necessity we have in our standard of
living. 

When a feather or a plastic bag or almost anything light is
placed in water, these items will generally float.  This is easy to understand if you think of
water being more dense than the other item. 
If you put something heavier in water, it tends to sink like a rock or a
piece of metal but this doesn't fully explain how an iron ship can float. 

The two heaviest
naturally occurring radioactive elements (by atomic weight) on the earth are Uranium and
Thorium.  Uranium is used as a fuel in
modern commercial nuclear power reactors for electricity generation.  A lesser known fact is that thorium could
also be used as a nuclear fuel . 
Naturally occurring thorium is not fissile and so not able to undergo
nuclear fission (separation) and as such it takes an initial nuclear reaction
to enable this process.

A very popular urban myth is that window glass is a
liquid.  This apparently originated by
the recognition that old European cathedrals had windows with the glass being
thicker at the bottom than the top.  The
actual cause of this is not attributable to gravity pulling the glass downward
in a slump but rather the early window manufacturing techniques followed by a
common practice of mounting window glass with the thicker side down. 

Uranium is the element having 92 protons in its nucleus with
typically 146 neutrons.  It is the
largest naturally occurring element. 
Like naturally occurring Thorium, uranium is radioactive and eventually
decays into radium and radon which are likewise radioactive.  Both  uranium and thorium decay through many series
of radioactive elements until they eventually become lead.