- Have you ever tried watching paint dry? Granted, it's not as entertaining
as a good YouTube video. But it's certainly
equivalent to an action movie for those people who
have the patience needed to watch something for decades, and still be waiting in anticipation. Lets find out if you have what it takes to join an incredibly
dedicated group of viewers Who've been waiting decades
to see and incredibly bizarre, yet important event you
probably never heard of. (musical sprinkles) - Amazing! - What you see here is
the pitch drop experiment. After 91 years, it's the longest
running scientific endeavor according to Guinness World Records. Back in 1927, Thomas Parnell, a professor at the University of
Queensland in Australia, set out to demonstrate
to his students that, while some substances appear solid, they're actually highly viscous fluids, so he poured a heated
substance called Pitch into a sealed funnel that allowed the material to cool for three years. Pitch is the term given
to a number of natural or manufactured viscoelastic
polymers, that are derived from plants, petroleum or coal tar. Some forms of pitch may also be known as bitumen or asphalt. It can be hit with a
hammer and reacts much like glass or tile, giving the
impression that it's solid. Essentially, Professor Parnell
heated up a piece of tar and let it cool in a funnel. Then, in 1930, Professor
Parnell cut the funnel seal to let the fun begin. With a large, glass
dome covering the pitch, it was set on display for
all to watch as the substance began to form droplets. The trouble is, each drop takes
close to a decade to fall, but that hasn't stopped a
dedicated following from try to witness what seems
to be the most elusive event on earth. Due to various environmental
issues and the sheer slowness of the drop
itself, the exact timing of each drop is quite unpredictable. So, seeing the drop fall
and hit the beaker below has been a challenge from the beginning. Not a single person has ever
witnessed the event happen. due to various circumstances. The glass dome sits in a cabinet
on the display in the foyer of what is now the Parnell building at Queensland University so
it's exposed to the room's air temperature, humidity and pressure. In fact, the drops were
falling at an average rate of just over eight years
until air conditioning was installed in the building
after the seventh drop in 1988, this lowered the
average temperature in the room causing the drops to slow down and the current rate of flow
was calculated to produce a drop about every 13 years. The experiment is so important,
it has it's own custodians. In the second half of 1961,
Professor John Maidstone took over custody of the
experiment and has watched over it for 52 years. He became ever so close to
becoming the very first person ever to see the pitch drop. As the seventh drop fell in 1988, Professor Maidstone however,
was out getting a coffee at Expo88, and returned
to find that the pitch had already fallen. There's a lesson in there
somewhere about taking control of your personal vices in favor
of life's bigger mysteries. Sadly, Professor Maidstone
passed away from a stroke in August 2013, never having seen it drop. Since then, the custodians
of the experiment have attempted to video the experiment, to catch it on camera even
if there is nobody there a the time of it's falling. However, as the eighth drop
came down in November 2000, something went wrong with the equipment and they didn't catch it then either. That is one sneaky pitch. Then, 156 months later,
on April 12th, 2014 the ninth drop touched what
was left of the previous drops but, during a beaker exchange
to clear the old mess the drop broke off as
the table wobbled when the current custodian,
Professor Andrew White removed the glass jar. The experiment continues
though as the next drop is expected to fall anytime
between 2020 and 2030. At this point the experiment
is on it's tenth drop and not one person has ever seen it fall while being in the room with it. Still, the experiment is
monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by
a live internet stream to over 35,000 people
registered in 160 countries and thousands more tune in each year. On average, people spend
half a day at a time watching and the person
who has watched the most, who happens to be from
New York, has spent over 491 hours with his eyes glued
to the screen at last count. While people watch online,
visitors can be seen on camera as they pose with the pitch,
hoping to be that person to be standing next to it when it happens. You can even place bets
on when it will drop. An Australian Sports betting website has odds for it's dropping
time, so you can win some money on what could be the least
entertaining event in history. If you don't have the patience to watch on a constant basis though, you can at least catch up
a little on the waiting through a two year time
lapse video that shows just how agonizingly slow the pitch moves while the Queensland Australia
pitch drop experiment is the oldest to never
be witnessed falling, another similar experiment
out of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, finally
caught their pitch dropping after 69 years, as they
captured it on video round 5 p.m. on July 13th, 2013. To date, it's the only drop
of pitch ever seen on camera, or seen by anyone. Their results concluded that
the pitch has a viscosity of about two million times
that of honey and is about 20 billion times more viscose than water. So basically as appetizing as it seems, don't drink asphalt. Aside from the pitch drop, there are other long running experiments
that also need closure. In 1840, an experimental
electric bell began ringing, and has been chiming almost
continuously in the foyer of Clarendon Laboratory at the
University of Oxford ever since. The bell is comprised of
two voltaic dry piles, which are a form of
battery, connected with an insulating layer of sulfur. Even though it is noted to be the world's most durable battery by the Guinness Book of Records The exact composition of
it's dry piles is unknown, still researchers are
afraid of opening the bell, as it would ruin the experiment to see how long it will last. It will eventually stop ringing when either it's clapper wears out or it's electro chemical energy is depleted. There have been moments when
the bell stopped ringing but it continued on
shortly after each pause. If you are looking for
a reliable alarm clock, note that this bell does
not have a snooze button. It's been going for nearly
180 years and so far it has produced approximately
10 billion rings. Apparently, universities
love to display their long running scientific
oddities in their foyers. This is another clock that sits in a foyer at the University of Otago
in Dunedin, New Zealand. It's called the Beverly Clock. What makes this clock so unusual is that it has not been wound
since it's creation by Arthur Beverly in 1864. The clock runs on atmospheric
and temperature changes as the sealed box inside the clock expands and contracts based on
temperature and barometric fluctuations during the
day, this pushes on a diaphragm to keep the clock ticking. A six degree Celsius
temperature change will raise a one pound weight about an inch and as it descends back
down, it powers the clock. Although the Beverly Clock has
stopped on various occasions due to cleaning, mechanical
malfunction and long periods of steady temperatures and
pressures, it's the closest anyone has ever come to creating
a perpetual motion device, which is a machine that powers itself and it continues to functioning
without intervention. So basically, it's an
impossible piece of technology. But long running scientific
endeavors don't just come in the form of clocks and dark drops, they also help us observe the world. For instance, the Vesuvius
Observatory is the largest volcanic institute in the world. It has been monitoring
Mount Vesuvius since 1841, trying to predict it's next big blast. Best known for it's
massive eruption in 79 A.D. when it buried the ancient
Roman city of Pompeii under a thick blanket of hot ash, Mount Vesuvius remains an active volcano, that's erupted more than
50 times in it's lifespan of several hundred thousand years. The observation outpost was
on the side of the mountain, until it moved to Naples, and had survived a number of eruptions, the last of which was in 1944. Thankfully, the eruption watch continues. Another long-running scientific endeavor that continues today, is
a germination experiment initiated by Botanist,
William James Beal in 1879. He set out to determine
whether seeds would sprout after a long period of dormancy by filling 20 bottles with sand and seed mixed from various plants. Burying bottles upside
down to keep water out, he started digging up the bottles, one every five years, to plant the seeds to see if they would grow. As he left a map for future scientists to continue this work,
the remaining bottles are now dug up once every 20 years. In 2000, two out of 21 plant
species found in the bottle sprouted, with the next
bottle planned for 2020, the completion of the
experiment is set for 2100. I for one, can't wait
to see all the results. Next up, a study that may never end, which began in 1896, on
a one acre plot of land just south of the Auburn
University campus of Alabama. The Old Rotation experiment,
as it is listed on the National Register
of Historical Places, shows that a crop of
cotton and legumes could support a cotton crop indefinitely, with legumes infusing
nitrogen into the soil for the next generation of cotton. Up until 1896, cotton producers
had difficulty maintaining their cotton yields because
the crop would drain the soil of it's nutrients. With the help of this experiment, started by Professor J.
F. Duggar, we now know that when planting cotton with legumes, we can keep the soil rich
and the cotton growing. Now lets touch on a long
lasting medical study. The Framingham Heart study has been an ongoing experiment for
over 65 years and counting. Started by Dr. Thomas Dawber
in 1948, under the direction of what was then called the
National Heart Institute. It was established to
identify the common factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of death
in the United States. A total of 5,209 men and
women, were recruited in the town of Framingham Massachusetts and every two years, the subjects return for a detailed medical review. In 1971, the study enrolled
the next generation of participants as 5,124 of
the original group's children and their spouses, became part
of the medical examinations. By 1994, a second group was enrolled to provide a more diverse community from which to gather information. And in 2002, the grandchildren
of the original participants became part of the study. The study has led to significant
findings over the years, like identifying early on, in the 1960's, that a cigarette smoking
increases your risk of heart disease and that so called "high-normal blood pressure" increases your risk of
cardiovascular disease. The study aims to continue
researching and discovering new medical breakthroughs about our physical and mental health, attempting to limit and even
prevent cardiovascular disease. That's great work by the medical team and the entire town of Framingham. I can't even get to the doctor for an annual medical appointment. So, which experiment did you
find the most interesting? Better yet, let me know
about something you waited so long to see but, never have. Til next time, thanks for watching. (music)
