We missed one material though, and it’s actually relevant.
There is a compound called 1-diazidocarbamoyl-5-azidotetrazole or C2N14, also known colloquially as azidoazide azide… or just azidoazide for short. Its claim to fame is that it is extremely reactive, and extremely explosive.
If anyone has experience with chemistry, one might notice that azidoazide has 14 nitrogen atoms and none of them are in a triple bond. This is interesting because nitrogen really really likes to form triple bonds with itself. The common nitrogen gas molecule, N2, is one of the strongest known bonds in all of chemistry, requiring a great deal of energy to break it apart. Conversely, when two nitrogen atoms slam together to create that bond, it releases a lot of energy and is a very explosive reaction.
This is how dynamite works, a.k.a. TNT, which stands for TriNitroToluene. Tri… Nitro… Three nitrogen atoms held apart so that they can be explosively recombined on command… and ten other atoms to keep them apart until then. Meanwhile, azidoazide has 14 nitrogen atoms… and not much else. It makes TNT look pretty tame.
But exactly how reactive is it?
Well, a team of scientists tried to study it, and here was their conclusion: “The sensitivity of C2N14 is beyond our capabilities of measurement… even the smallest possible loadings in shock and friction tests led to explosive decomposition.”
It’s so reactive that no one has yet devised a way to measure it.
They tried a variety of things during their tests, and here is an incomplete list of stimuli which cause azidoazide to explode:
- Exposing it to x-rays.
- Touching it.
- Moving it.
- Dispersing it in solution.
- Exposing it to bright light.
- Putting it in a spectrometer.
- Turning on the spectrometer.
- Leaving it undisturbed on a glass plate.
- And … absolutely nothing!
The reactiveness of this compound cannot be overstated. Simply existing seems to be irritating enough to set it off and make it explode. Azidoazide will literally explode at the drop of a hat, or for that matter, at anything else.
So why is this relevant?
Humans are a lot like azidoazide. Trying to get humans to not socialize is like trying to get azidoazide to not explode.
When humans are present, discussions will spring up at the slightest provocation, about virtually any topic, or can even be incited by nothing at all. Mere existence or passage of time is enough to set people off and make them talk about stuff. Expose a human to bright light, and they’ll generally say something. Put a human in a spectrometer, and they’ll make sure their opinion on the matter is expressed. Leave a human undisturbed on a glass plate, and it rarely takes long before words start coming out.
… and that’s nothing compared to what happens when you put multiple humans together in one place.
BOOM!
I guess what I’m really saying here is … Welcome to BLF.