Finding Beauty and Truth in Mundane Occurrences | Quanta Magazine
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 (opens a new tab) 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.
Sounds like a cool guy. Condensed matter physics is definitely cool.