Finding Beauty and Truth in Mundane Occurrences

Summary

A stain drying on the counter. A raindrop splashing onto the sidewalk. A pile of gravel settling. Historically, such phenomena have rarely caught the attention of physicists, as they seem mundane and devoid of fundamental significance. At the same time, these everyday happenings are also deceptively hard to understand. Out of balance and disordered, they sit outside the comfort zone of the typical physicist. But Sidney Nagel of the University of Chicago is not typical. In the 1970s, he began his career by studying the structure of glass — a traditional topic in condensed matter physics. Then he branched out into quirkier, softer forms of matter that the physics community had largely overlooked. Nagel and his collaborators have developed theories of “jamming” that help explain the flow (or lack of flow) of both sand and traffic. They’ve also stumbled upon new phenomena in droplets and splashes. “My deep and abiding feeling is that if you look at anything closely enough, there will be new riches to be found,” Nagel said. Unorthodox though it is, his work has been highly impactful and widely celebrated: Nagel won the 1999 Oliver E. Buckley Prize, one of the most coveted awards in condensed matter physics, and the 2023 Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research of the American Physical Society. He also takes great pains to capture aesthetically pleasing visuals in the course of his research. Images from his experiments have graced museum walls, an achievement that seems to make Nagel at least as proud as his discoveries do. “When people see this image on the wall, I hope that it makes them feel more enriched,” he said. “It matters that it takes a full human being” — someone capable of appreciating both art and science — “to look at it. There isn’t just one aspect involved.” Quanta caught up with Nagel during a meeting of the American Physical Society in Anaheim in March. We sat on a stone bench under the California sun and talked of coffee stains, surprising splashes...