In a moment sure to inspire conflicted feelings of aesthetic revulsion and geeky fascination in any goggles-wearing would-be mad scientist, this local TV news segment demonstrates how superheating steam turns a warm fog into a powerful, invisible force capable of lighting a match.

Steve Spangler, a former public school science teacher, does science experiments on Denver KUSA-TV 9News. He also has a Web site with instructions for performing this experiment at home. For all you gadgeteers out there.

Thumbnail image courtesy Flickr user Charles_and_Clint, via CC