Sunday, April 20, 2014

Finally . . .

The tar dropped: 84 year science experiment finally sees results after years of nothing
Since 1930, there has been a science experiment that basically does nothing. Seriously. Scientists watch as a solid—that's actually a liquid 230 billion times more viscous than water—drips down a glass container. But that takes time. A lot of time with a whole lot of nothing. For the past 84 years, the blob of tar has only dripped 8 times. It finally dripped the 9th time.

Sadly though, the scientist who was in charge of the experiment hosted at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia had passed away last year before he could see it drip this 9th time. What's worse, Professor John Mainstone had never seen the pitch drop even before he died. He missed the past 5 drops completely (the first 3 drops occurred when the creator of the experiment, Professor Thomas Parnell, was in charge of it) which means he never saw his experiment go through.
You snooze, you lose.

I blogged this back in 2011, when the drop was expected "any day."  Glad to see science still going forward, however slowly.

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