The next time you find yourself being chased by bill collectors, all you need is a beaker full of gallium to turn the aluminum baseball bats they’re wielding into what looks like a kid-safe toy made from squishy Nerf foam.


Gallium is one of those rare metals that melts somewhere just above room temperature. When exposed to the aluminum, the harder metal will actually absorb into the softer gallium like a sponge soaking up a spill. As if that’s not freaky enough, once it’s been absorbed, the gallium will actually make the aluminum incredibly soft and brittle, to the point where you can tear apart an aluminum baseball bat using your bare hands.

[YouTube via The Awesomer]