The Pechtropfenexperiment (The Tar Pitch Experiment)

It all started in 1927 with physics professor Thomas Parnell, who poured Tar Pitch into a sealed funnel in his laboratory at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.

He then waited three years for the material to cool down and settle. In 1930 he opened the clasp, but only eight years later, the first drop dissolved and plopped into the beaker below, to which another nine years later joined a second drop.

A long seven years later - Parnell had died in the already- followed by a third drop before 1961 physicist John Ma

instone took over the observation. So far, he has experienced five drops and the rise of the experiment to fame.

But: Nobody has ever seen a drip of a drop live: one drop takes seven to twelve years to grow, but it only drips down in tenths of a second - the last time the recording camera malfunctioned.

Colleagues at Trinity College in Dublin were more fortunate to actually record such a rare event later.

This all sounds extremely wrong, but is actually true!