實驗最久金氏紀錄 瀝青80年滴8滴

實驗最久金氏紀錄 瀝青80年滴8滴

編譯夏嘉玲/綜合報導

科學實驗往往曠日費時，澳洲昆士蘭大學有個始於1927年的高黏度瀝青滴漏實驗，起創的物理學家帕奈爾已謝世近一甲子，實驗仍在進行，且依進度推估，至少還要上百年才會結束，已獲金氏世界紀錄認證成為全球持續最久的實驗室實驗。

不過，還有不少科學類活動的壽命更長，如英國牛津大學有個用電池的電鈴1840年以來鈴聲未曾歇止，紐西蘭有座鐘1864年用到現在還在走，英國還有塊農業研究用地1843年栽種作物以來未曾廢耕過。

帕奈爾為了測量高黏度瀝青在室溫下的流動情形，把瀝青裝進封了口的漏斗，讓瀝青往下滴。1930年，瀝青才衝破封口，但第一滴直到1938年12月才滴出來，最近一滴則在2000年11月28日滴下，實驗持續至今總共只滴出八滴瀝青。下一滴據估會在2012年前後滴出來，漏斗中的瀝青可能要再至少一百年才會流光。

帕奈爾在瀝青第二度滴落後不久的1948年即告別人世。他身後監督這項實驗的是昆大退休物理學者孟斯東，兩人憑此實驗同獲2005年「搞笑諾貝爾獎」。孟斯東說這項「亟需耐心進行的實驗」一直與科學中的聚合物、流體相關。

截至目前，還沒有任何人親眼目睹過瀝青滴落。裝了瀝青的漏斗一直鎖在昆大物理系大廳的櫃子裡，偶爾才展示給學生看，不少系友畢業多年後還會攜家帶眷回來關心瀝青實驗的進度。

【2006/08/25 聯合晚報】

The World's Longest-Running Experiments

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,210481,00.html

Friday , August 25, 2006

By Heather Whipps

The best science experiments are conducted carefully and often slowly, some taking years of painstaking work to yield results.

Sometimes, they run well after the scientists who began them are long dead.

When he set up his pitch-drop experiment at Australia's University of Queensland in 1927, physicist Thomas Parnell had to know he would expire long before his test did.

The experiment examines the viscosity of pitch, a tar-like substance, by the speed at which it flows from a funnel into a jar. Only eight drops have fallen in the eight decades since the experiment began.

Parnell died in 1948, just two drops in.

The pitch-drop test did win Parnell a posthumous Ig Nobel Award in 2005, given out for achievements in science that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."

Accepting on his behalf was co-winner John Mainstone, a retired University of Queensland physicist and official custodian of the experiment since Parnell's death.

"It is the sort of experiment that does require patience," Mainstone said.

But Parnell's work falls decades short of the duration records set by other experiments.

In the field

Deciding on what qualifies as the oldest science experiment is not an exact science, however. Experts say that because they vary so much in style and purpose, they can't really be compared.

The pitch-drop test is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running laboratory experiment, but there are plenty of other, even lengthier scientific enterprises still on the go around the world:

— An agricultural research field in the United Kingdom started in 1843.

— A clock in New Zealand that has ticked without being wound since 1864.

— A battery-powered bell at Oxford University that has rung continuously since 1840.

One of the longest-running experiments in the United States, a set of agricultural test-fields at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is currently celebrating its 130th anniversary.

The United States was observing its own centennial when the Morrow Plots were established in 1876.

Fewer than 40 million people — not one still alive today — lived in the United States at the time, more than two-thirds of them on farms.

Wages for those farmers stood at fifteen cents a month, according to information provided by the university.

Despite being designated a National Historical Landmark in 1968, the corn fields are still in active use. The university takes samples from the site on a regular basis, with the rest of the corn going into storage to be sold at market later.

Like the pitch-drop test, the Morrow Plots have also been able to keep with the times, according to the university's online history: "Little has changed since 1903 and over almost 150 years of use, the plots have provided invaluable data on the effects of crop rotation, natural soil nutrient depletion, and effects of various man-made and natural fertilizers on crop yield."

Waiting for the next drop

No one has ever seen a drop fall in Thomas Parnell's pitch experiment, even though the experiment is displayed prominently in a bell jar in the lobby of the university's physics department.

"It's that continuity that is really quite fascinating," Mainstone told LiveScience. "It used to be this thing that we kept locked in a cupboard, trotting it out only for some student demonstrations. But it really became a kind of industry."

He noted that students who graduated years ago still bring their families back to the campus to check on the pitch's progress.

The experiment continues to be relevant to modern science, too. Mainstone chats regularly about viscosity with engineers interested in polymers and liquids with properties similar to the pitch.

Being custodian of an experiment like the pitch drop or Morrow Plots is not for the glory-seeking scientist, Mainstone agreed.

The next drop of his charge is expected to fall through the funnel by about 2012, he said, and the jar should remain undisturbed long after that.

At its current rate, the last of the pitch won't descend for at least another hundred years.

A successor has already been chosen to carry the proverbial pitch-drop torch, Mainstone said.

"He'll have to clear his schedule for media requests," he laughed, admitting that otherwise the job doesn't require much work.