Chemistry yay: alkali metal explosions

[Glaurung]

Another one in my steady stream of posts about BBC News articles...

This one is about some new research on explosions when alkali metals (sodium, potassium, etc.) hit water - specifically on the very early stages (1 millisecond or so), and why they go "bang" and not "bubble". There's a nice quote from one of the researchers: "We went through quite a lot of kit before we worked out how to do it safely."

[TTG4]

That's pretty cool! And a fairly reasonable explanation as far as I can tell.