A reminder from science
In 1927, physics professor Thomas Parnell at the University of Queensland wanted to show his students something incredible:
that pitch — a black, solid-looking substance — isn’t solid at all. It’s a liquid that flows so slowly, it takes decades to move.
To prove it, he heated some pitch, poured it into a glass funnel, and let it cool. Then, he waited.
The first drop fell... 11 years later, in 1938.
The next, in 1947. Then 1954, 1962, 1970, 1979, 1988, 2000, and 2014.
That’s just nine drops in nearly a century.
No one has ever seen a drop fall in person — one even fell when the camera was off. Yet the experiment still continues, quietly measuring time in decades, not seconds.
Today, the Pitch Drop Experiment is the longest-running laboratory experiment in history, officially recognized by Guinness World Records.
You can even watch it live, streaming from the University of Queensland in Australia — though you’ll need patience. The next drop might not fall until the 2030s.
A reminder from science:
even the slowest things in the universe are still moving forward.
that pitch — a black, solid-looking substance — isn’t solid at all. It’s a liquid that flows so slowly, it takes decades to move.
To prove it, he heated some pitch, poured it into a glass funnel, and let it cool. Then, he waited.
The first drop fell... 11 years later, in 1938.
The next, in 1947. Then 1954, 1962, 1970, 1979, 1988, 2000, and 2014.
That’s just nine drops in nearly a century.
No one has ever seen a drop fall in person — one even fell when the camera was off. Yet the experiment still continues, quietly measuring time in decades, not seconds.
Today, the Pitch Drop Experiment is the longest-running laboratory experiment in history, officially recognized by Guinness World Records.
You can even watch it live, streaming from the University of Queensland in Australia — though you’ll need patience. The next drop might not fall until the 2030s.
A reminder from science:
even the slowest things in the universe are still moving forward.
