A water droplet lands on a piece of molten sodium - you know the rest! MORE SLOW MOTION VIDEOS HERE: http://bit.ly/chemslomo Discussed by Professor Martyn Poliakoff. More chemistry at http://www.periodicvideos.com/ Follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/periodicvideos And on Twitter at http://twitter.com/periodicvideos From the School of Chemistry at The University of Nottingham: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/chemistry/index.aspx Periodic Videos films are by video journalist Brady Haran: http://www.bradyharan.com/ Brady's other channels include: http://www.youtube.com/sixtysymbols (Physics and astronomy) http://www.youtube.com/numberphile (Numbers and maths) http://www.youtube.com/BackstageScience (Big science facilities) http://www.youtube.com/PhilosophyFile (Philosophy stuff) Watch videos about EVERY element: http://bit.ly/VT9nNZ Reactions filmed with a Phantom Miro. We used this: http://www.visionresearch.com/Products/High-Speed-Cameras/Miro-M310/ Special thanks to Destin from Smarter Every Day for helping us out: http://www.youtube.com/smartereveryday Music courtesy of Alan Stewart - https://www.youtube.com/alankey86