So this Weekly Wiki might not be a new concept to a lot of you guys ‘cause you all seem smart and all seem to know random facts and such, but it’s still a cool topic so it’s happening. I randomly stumbled upon the article for heavy water.

11% denser than “regular” water, heavy water is physically and chemically similar to water except for the fact that it is enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium. The deuterium isotope is twice as heavy as the lightest stable isotope, increasing the strength of the water’s hydrogen-oxygen bond. This increased bond is enough to cause enough of a change in how organisms can process water…to the point where higher organisms whose regular water content is replaced with enough heavy water (more than 50%), cell death and ultimately organism death results.

In one of the chemistry books I was e-texting (totally a verb) the other day actually had a picture of a glass of water with regular H2O ice floating on top and “heavy water” ice at the bottom of the glass, too heavy to float. It was pretty sweet.

Edit: found it!

(courtesy PopSci)