system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why can't you absorb mercury (metal) with a sponge?

If sponges absorb liquids, and mercury is a liquid metal, why can't mercury be absorbed by a sponge?
gpt
When you pick up water with a sponge, some of the water forms very weak chemical connections with the material of the sponge.  We say that the sponge is 'wettable' with water.

Mercury doesn't have the same chemical properties as water, and won't make the same connections.  If you had a sponge made of say, gold, it would pick up the mercury, but the mercury would also form an amalgam with the gold.