Huang Chuncai was known as the "Elephant Man of China," due to a massive growth on his face that was so huge it went down to his waist. Also nicknamed as the “man with the melting face,” Chuncai's 56-pound tumor was so large that he had to hold it every time he went for a walk. The 37-year-old had the worst case of neurofibromatosis ever recorded. He could barely move, eat or sleep due to his condition. Chuncai got progressively worse over time, and his face looked like it was literally melting. The neurofibromatosis also stunted his growth—Huang grew to only 4ft tall as the pressure of the weight on his spine gave him a hunchback. The condition was left untreated for 30 years, as his parents could not afford surgery. Chuncai became despondent and considered suicide after his parents were offered money for him to star in a freak show. At his darkest hour, he was finally given the chance for a normal life when the Chinese government offered to finance the surgery to remove the growths. At first, doctors at the Fuda Cancer Hospital weren't sure they could help Chuncai. The chief physician, Wu Binghui, said, "I was shocked, I had never seen a tumor as big as Haung's on a human body. The tumor was full of blood. It would flow out when you cut it.” After four operations over seven years, doctors removed over 46 pounds of the tumor. Chuncai said, "I feel really good, my face feels even better—much lighter and it's easier to eat.” He is now looking forward to his future and told the press, “I hope I can earn some money. I don't look as scary as (I did) before, now (that) my tumor is much smaller.”

In October 2014, an argument between roommates Melissa Dawn Sellers and Carlos Ortiz Jr. erupted after Ortiz threw out Sellers' spaghetti and meatballs. According to a witness, Ines Causevic, Sellers was “setting little objects on fire, then that turned into (her) pouring nail polish remover all over him. All of a sudden, the lighter sparked and he lit on fire.” Causevic said that Sellers tried to put out the fire by throwing water on it and tearing Ortiz's shirt off. “When he got up, his face was like melting off,” Causevic said. Police said that the two were drinking before the fight occurred. Sellers had been staying with Ortiz after losing her job at Walmart. Ortiz was hospitalized in critical condition with burns to his face and torso. Police eventually caught up with Sellers and charged her with aggravated battery.

Speaking of Walmart, let's turn our attention to “the ice cream sandwich that wouldn't melt"— Walmart's Great Value brand. In July 2014, a Cincinnati station, WCPO, conducted a melting test on several brands of ice cream (Haagen-Dazs, Klondike and Walmart Great Value). They were informed by a local mother of two, Christie Watson, that ice cream treats sold by Walmart did not melt when left out in the sun for several hours. The three brands of ice cream were all left out in the sun for 30 minutes. The Walmart sandwich melted the least while the Klondike sandwich was about two-thirds melted, and the Haagen-Dazs ice cream melted completely. The retail giant attempted to offer WCPO an explanation. "Ice cream melts based on the ingredients including cream," said a Walmart representative. "Ice cream with more cream will melt at a slower rate, which is the case with our Great Value ice cream sandwiches." Sean O'Keefe, a food chemist at Virginia Tech, disagreed. He said that more cream should make ice cream melt faster. O'Keefe did confirm that fat could affect the rate at which an ice cream product will melt—the less fat (and the more water) in ice cream, the slower it liquefies. The Walmart ice cream also contains some stabilizers to help the ice cream keep its shape. They include guar gum and cellulose gum. (Haagen-Dazs doesn't contain any stabilizers.) An ice cream sandwich that doesn't melt may not sound like the most appetizing of summer treats. However, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the stabilizers are both categorized as safe for consumption.

A 37-story skyscraper in London's financial district was given the nickname "The Walkie Talkie” due to its unique shape. It wasn't long before the building was given a new nickname—"The Walkie Scorchie." The £200-million building was given that nickname by those who work nearby because of the way the sun's rays bounced off the side of it and melted nearby objects. For about two weeks in the summer, about two hours a day, the sun's light is aligned to the building. When the sun hits it, a very bright, concentrated beam hits the street below. The building has been known to blister paint, singe carpeting, and causes tiles to crack and cause cars to melt. Just ask the nearby business owner, Martin Lindsay, who had his Jaguar XJ parked near the building for an hour only to return to melted plastic and twisted panels. Locals have even fried eggs from the intense sunlight reflected off the building. Developers paid out £1,000 in compensation to motorists who had their cars damaged by the sun. The building has since been fitted with a sunshade known as a 'brise soleil' to prevent the glare from damaging cars and nearby shops.

Thanks to global warming, a melting glacier in the Northern-Italian Alps is slowly revealing the corpses of soldiers who died in the First World War. After decades of being trapped in a glacier, the frozen bodies appear to be perfectly mummified from the ice. In 1915, ten months before the start of World War I, Italy decided to join the Allied Forces. In an effort to expand its borders and add the mountainous areas of Trentino and Southern Tirol, Italy waged war with Austria. Thus began “The White War”— a cold, four-year-long conflict between Italian mountain troops, named “the Alpini," and their Austrian opponents, “the Kaiserschützen." “The White War” was fought in high altitudes and ice trenches. Soldiers from each side used explosives to cause avalanches (“the white death”) in each other's camps. One hundred years later, the effects of global warming are causing the Presena glacier running through the battleground to melt. At first, smaller items were found streaming down hillsides with the melting glacier, but now the bodies of soldiers who fought in the war are following suit. Due to the extreme cold, the remains of two Austrians emerged from the ice almost completely intact. Still in their uniforms were the bodies were of two, blue-eyed, blonde teen soldiers with bullet holes in the backs of their heads. To date, more than 80 bodies have appeared from the depths of the glacier. All of them pass through the office of a forensic anthropologist, Daniel Gaudio, tasked to trace the identities of the war victims. At long last, at least there is some sense of closure for the families of the soldiers.

Insert your favorite “It was so hot today…” Johnny Carson joke here. In August 2015, British tourist John Westbrook took footage of a dark blue Renault Megane melting in Caorle, on Italy's northern coast, where temperatures hit 37°C (99°F). Westbrook captured amazing video of the lights, side mirrors and window fittings melting off the vehicle as it sat parked near the beach. The melting car could be due to the effects of global warming, but maybe “they just don't make ‘em like they used to.” Perhaps it's a bit of both.

One questionable fashion fad is the “melting tights” craze. A wide range tights that come in a bizarre variety of styles and colors hit the market in 2013. German clothier URB manufactures everything from “Unicorn Melting Tights” in a vibrant bubblegum pink to aqua “Pacific Tears Meltingtights." There are even "BlacknWhite Melting Leggings for Men." All are priced at around $65.

Millions of people worldwide suffer from cataracts, which are leading cause of vision loss and even blindness. Surgery is currently the only available option, but there soon may be another way to correct the problem—eye drops to melt away cataracts. Lanosterol is a naturally occurring steroid in the body. Scientists first became aware of its cataract-blocking abilities by observing two children in China who had a hereditary form of the condition. They sequenced the children's genomes and identified a genetic mutation that interfered with the production of the steroid. From there, they decided to test whether lanosterol might have the ability to prevent, or even eliminate, cataracts. In a series of experiments, the scientists tested lanosterol on donated human lenses and live rabbits and dogs. The tests showed that eye drops of lanosterol reverse protein aggregation in cataracts by “melting” them. Scientists are expected to start human trials within a year.

Police in the Netherlands are busting cannabis growers—thanks to melting snow. The warmth required for cannabis farms usually makes them hotter than the surrounding properties, meaning that the one house on the street with a bare roof may be the home of a pot plantation. “No snow on the neighbors' roof? You can report suspected cannabis farms anonymously,” police in the city of Haarlem tweeted, urging people to be vigilant. The technique appears to be working. Arrests of illegal cannabis growers are being recorded across the country. Twitter users complained, however, that innocent families could be targeted if they had, say, a loft conversion. While the Netherlands is famous for its cannabis cafés, growing more than five plants is illegal, and the police are only too happy to have farmers' dreams, ahem, go up in smoke.

The award for the biggest hockey fan in the world might have to go to Emil Nilsén. The Swedish father has arranged for his baby daughter to be christened with melting ice from the rink used by his favorite hockey team, Leksand. With permission, Nilsén took ice from Tegera Arena, Leksand's home rink, He melted it and got his local church to agree to use it for his daughter's baptism. He said the church's chaplain had initially looked at him as if he was crazy but agreed to his holy hockey H2O baptism idea. The 35-year-old said, “My parents met through their fandom around (the) Leksand Superstars, and I also met my wife at a hockey game, so it is a big part of my life." He added, “I have ADHD, and I am on overdrive all the time, but it is a kind of superpower when it comes to stuff like this."