Did you know that beer helped Donald Glaser win the Nobel Prize?

Glaser invented the bubble chamber. Basically, it's a giant... well, chamber that is used to detect electrically charged particles. The container is filled with liquid, the liquid it heated to close to boiling, bubbles begin to form, their trajectories can be trailed, and then (science science science) that leads to many important discoveries. Magnets are involved. Clearly, it's a rather important invention, as Glaser's Physics Nobel proves.

Originally, it was said that Glaser got the inspiration for the chamber from bubbles formed in beer, but he later refuted that theory. He did use beer in his prototypes, a perfect example of mixing science with pleasure!

In recent years, the bubble chamber has given way to a wire chamber, which is usually filled with argon and isobutane. Not as exciting as beer, we give you that...