Forces of Nature

by Brian Cox

If ice were denser than liquid water, sea ice would sink to the ocean floor. In such a scenario, particularly during Earth’s great glaciations, the lakes, seas and oceans of Earth could have frozen from the bottom up, perhaps becoming permanently solid.

The Martian mountain Olympus Mons is the highest mountain in the Solar System; at over 24 kilometres in altitude, it is close to the height of three Everests stacked on top of each other. Such a monstrous structure is impossible on Earth because of the immense weight – a result of the Earth’s greater mass and therefore stronger gravitational pull at the surface.

When you look at a snowflake, you are seeing the primal structure of our Universe.

There are treasures beyond imagination in the simplest things, if we care to look closely.