Iron does not dissolve in mercury. In the Big Bang, only three elements were synthesized: roughly 75 percent hydrogen, 25 percent helium, with most of the remainder being lithium. Mercury was not among them.
Theoretically, all elements heavier than iron should have been produced after massive supernova explosions. Mercury should be one of them.
Gold might be precious, but it did not possess mercury's almost miraculous ability to absorb many metals.
If pure mercury was placed in a dichromate solution and touched with a rust-free iron nail, it would produce a miraculous reaction resembling a heartbeat.
This phenomenon was called the "mercury heartbeat," produced by the combined effects of metal reduction reactions and changes in liquid tension.
Now, Sun Gold was bouncing through the air like mercury with a heartbeat.
It could leave the treasure chamber on its own and even move about in the colonnaded atrium and the courtyard beyond it.
When Pomona first saw that courtyard, she was too stunned to find words for how she felt.
It was not especially large, around two-thirds the size of Anfield Stadium, but there was a pool filled with a mercury-like substance in the courtyard, with a tree growing at its center.
Sun Gold flew around it, creating a fantastical sight that reminded her of the Fusang tree from Eastern legends, and the sunbirds that lived upon it.
Every day, ten suns took turns driving their chariots away from the eastern sea, carrying out their duties.
But one day, they intended to break that rule, and all ten suns appeared in the sky together.
The earth became parched, the weather unbearably hot, and a hero named Hou Yi shot down nine of the suns with his bow, leaving only one behind.
To reward his achievement, the gods gave him a vial