World's Longest-Running Experiment Produces Result

First a British male won Wimbledon after a 76 year wait. Now the famous Pitch Drop experiment has yielded its first televised result in 69 years. If you are a scientist tennis fan your Christmasses have all come at once.

The world's longest-running experiment involves measuring the flow of pitch - a highly viscous liquid. It appears solid, but over very long periods of time behaves like a liquid, including forming drops over periods of years.

An experiment at the University of Queensland in Australia has been running since 1927 - in that time only 8 drops have fallen, none caught on camera.

However, a sister experiment at Trinity College in Dublin, running since 1944, has finally seen the elusive drop caught for posterity. Footage of the momentous occasion can be seen below.

At this rate England might win the World Cup next year - although we've only been waiting a mere 48 years for that, so maybe it's a bit soon.

[via Nature]

(Image: YouTube)