We often think of metals as being these hard, tough, heavy, almost invincible things. But in reality, there are a ton—no pun intended—of different varieties of metals. Some metals bend easily and other metals are stiff. Some metals can withstand incredibly high amounts of heat before melting and other metals melt at incredibly low temperatures—like mercury which has a lower melting point than ice! That means if you cooled down mercury and water together down to the point that the water turns to ice, the mercury would still be a liquid!
Bismuth is a crystalline white metal that is still solid at room temperature, however, it doesn’t take much to melt it. Once molten, after what is bismuth cools back down, it organizes its molecules into really interesting shapes. When matter organizes its molecules into a more specific pattern, it creates a crystal. The salt we put on our food organizes its molecules into teeny tiny cubes, although it’s a little harder to see these little cubes after you’ve eaten them. Though not entirely unique, contrary to popular belief, water can crystallize into the six-sided shapes we know as snowflakes.
The structure of what is bismuth crystal is just so wild and the beautiful color that happens when it oxidizes is captivating. When metal oxidizes, it means that its outer layer has changed because of its exposure to the oxygen in the air around us. When iron oxidizes, it gets a red-orange colored layer we call rust. When bismuth oxidizes, however, you can see so many colors; like pink, purple, green, blue and yellow.
