It’s not every day when news crops up that sounds like the start of a science fiction story – or at least, they didn’t used to be.
Nowadays, a story about a rock that generates its own electricity kind of feels like just another day in Wakanda, you know?
But, what if it’s real?
A slew of viral videos have been popping up across social media depicting a “new” mineral thats able to hold a charge. People are rubbing them together to create sparks, connecting them with wires that appear to power an LED, and a few other alien tricks.
Electrically charged stones discovered in the Democratic republic of Congo, now more trouble coming, cry my beloved Africa. pic.twitter.com/6aa6Iz2sSp
— Daniel Marven (@danielmarven) January 21, 2023
The rocks supposedly hail from the Republic of Congo.
Obviously, people would be very interested in rocks that could replace batteries and store power.
Experts are weighing in, though, and calling bulls%*t.
They say that, in the sparking video, the rock is likely connected to the mineral (pyrite) and are conducting current between them.
The LED video doesn’t have a rational explanation, so it’s likely fabricated entirely.
Congo is wakanda pic.twitter.com/HnlUPzXRt9
— Senior Munyuthe 🇰🇪|🇳🇴 (@anyuisky) January 22, 2023
Yaoguo Li, a geophysics professor at the Colorado School of Mines, (sadly) promises it’s not vibranium.
“We don’t know of any mechanism, thus far, that actually supports that kind of phenomenon.”
Minerals do not have the chemical makeup it would require to store a charge. They’re not able to release the electrons needed to store and produce charge. In order for that to change, a mineral like the one people are claiming to have found would need to have an anode and a cathode that can interact.
So, probably just some trickery after all.
Just another day on the internet in a world without Wakanda.