A devotee holds incense sticks while celebrating the Sindoor Jatra Festival on April 15, 2015 in Thimi, Nepal. Sindoor Jatra Festival is celebrated each year in Thimi, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, to welcome the Nepali New Year and celebrate the coming of spring. During the Festival, devotees are smeared with vermillion powder and 30 chariots containing the images of several gods and goddesses are carrying by the devotees around the town, while others sing, dance and play musical instruments. (Photo by Omar Havana/Getty Images)

Cuban Daymara A., 20, poses for a photograph after she crossed the border from Colombia through the jungle into La Miel, in the province of Guna Yala, Panama December 2, 2015. According to local authorities in La Miel, some 100 to 150 Cubans have been entering Panama from Colombia every day for the last three months. Scores of Cubans have come to Panama as they seek overland passage towards the United States fearing a recent detente between Washington and Havana could end their preferential treatment. (Photo by Carlos Jasso/Reuters)

A person stands in front of a 25.3-meter-long giant rabbit designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman at an old aircraft hangar as part of the Taoyuan Land Art Festival in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan, September 3, 2014. The rabbit is named “Moon rabbit” for the coming Mid-Autumn Festival or the Moon Festival and will be displayed from September 4 to 14 at the Taoyuan military base. (Photo by Pichi Chuang/Reuters)

If we were to burn NH4Cr2O7 with HgSCN in the Dark Ages in Europe and show it to anyone, it is us who would be burning next on a fiery cross of Inquisition. And it’s no wonder, since this experiment produces a truly marvelous result. At first, as you ignite the mixture of NH4Cr2O7 and HgSCN, all you can see is that it is slowly burning with a reddish flame. After a while, however, a crater is formed in the middle of the burning pile, and then, suddenly, tentacle-like appendages start sprouting from the burning mixture. And you can almost hear the scream of the mad occultist – “Come forth, Kraken! Come forth!” But of course, this is simply a chemical reaction that is called the "Pharoah's Serpent". It was also often sold in firework stores until people realized that it was toxic.

A woman walks with her daughter through an empty street on April 27, 2020 in Malaga, Spain. Since April 27 children under 12 are allowed to come and go from their homes more freely. Spain has had more than 209,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 23,000 reported deaths, although the rate has declined after weeks of lockdown measures. (Photo by Daniel Perez Garcia-Santos/Getty Images)

A Fulani Pastoralist carries two baby sheep on her donkey cart as her family move on northwards in Barkedji, Senegal on July 21, 2020. Thousands of Pastoralist families will start the movement north in the next weeks. With the first rains comes fresh grass and water for the Fulani herders' livestock, it also marks the point where most of the Pastoralist will move northwards until the dry season. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)

A visitor is reflected in a light installation at Mulberry Lights on Regent Street in London, UK on November 16, 2018. Visitors have fun taking selfies and posing with the colourful light installations. Mulberry Lights is a series of illuminating interactive experiences that celebrate how light, colour, shapes and people come together to create a modern British Christmas. (Photo by Imageplotter/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A woman spends her time outdoors to observe the ancient festival of Sizdeh Bedar, an annual public picnic day on the 13th day of the Iranian new year, at the Tochal mountainous area northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April, 2, 2017. Sizdeh Bedar, which comes from the Farsi words for “thirteen” and “day out”, is a legacy from Iran's pre-Islamic past that hard-liners in the Islamic Republic never managed to erase from calendars. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)