The 10 most beautiful physics experiments

The multibillion-dollar, 17-mile-long, particle-smashing Large Hadron Collider is being hailed as the greatest experiment ever. But ultimately, when you get beyond the Collider’s 21st-century bells and whistles, the pursuit of scientific knowledge boils down to the individual mind wrestling with the unknown. The Takeaway looks back at this simpler side of science with Robert P. Crease, the author of “The Prism and the Pendulum: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments in Science”