LAST month, the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory reported the first data from its study of the highest-energy particles that bombard our planet. The results aren’t earth-shattering – literally or metaphorically – but they open a new window on the universe. Perhaps more importantly, they demonstrate what a combination of bold thinking and technological skill can accomplish.
Cosmic rays – energetic particles travelling through space – were discovered by accident in 1912 by Victor Hess, when he found that an electroscope discharged increasingly rapidly as he ascended in a balloon, demonstrating that the electric charge it measured was coming not from…
