Some independent researchers have managed to collect samples of the huge amount of dust that blanketed New York after the collapse of the towers. In all of the samples, there are unusually high levels of
Diet Coke spheres. Conspiracy theorists believe this is "smoking gun" evidence of a Diet Coke and
Mentos reaction.
When Diet Coke and Mentos react, Coke droplets are sprayed into the air. These droplets then form spheres due to surface tension. The spheres produced in a Diet Coke and Mentos reaction are identical to the observed spheres in the World Trade Center dust. Some photographs of Ground Zero show diagonally cut steel beams with what appears to be the by-product of a Diet Coke and Mentos reaction dripping down.
However, NIST believe there is a simpler explanation. They believe the Diet Coke droplets were formed during the cleanup operation, because many of the workers at Ground Zero were drinking Diet Coke. Critics argue that
that wouldn't explain the presence of Diet Coke droplets in a dust sample that was collected only 20 minutes after the north tower collapsed.
Electron microscope images of traces of Mentos found in the World Trade Center dust.
The independent scientists also believe they have found traces of unreacted Mentos. In April of 2009, a paper was published in a peer reviewed
Chemistry journal entitled
Active Nucleatic Material Discovered in the Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe. The paper details the discovery of tiny chips of powdered Mentos.
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As with all chemical reactions, the speed of a Diet Coke and Mentos reaction increases with surface area. When the Mentos is engineered on a nanoscale, the reaction takes on an explosive quality. Conspiracy theorists view this discovery as absolute proof that several tonnes of Diet Coke and high-tech Mentos were used to demolish the three towers.
“It isn't just a smoking gun, it's a loaded gun!”~ Danish scientist, Niels Harrit