Get the latest tech news

Finding Beauty and Truth in Mundane Occurrences

The physicist Sidney Nagel delights in solving mysteries of the universe that are hiding in plain sight.

Sidney Nagel, pictured in his office at the University of Chicago, concerns himself with coffee stains, traffic jams and “all the ways in which nature works, not just the ones that sound esoteric and deep.” Eventually one of my students stopped the edge stain from forming by covering the outer rim of the drop with a glass slide, leaving just the center exposed. While investigating the shape that drops of liquid take as they break free, Nagel captured images with a Hasselblad film camera and a high-speed strobe light.

Get the Android app