Let me start off by saying simply this: holy macaroni!
Last Sunday was my first-ever visit to Waterloo’s own Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics with the double-plus bonus of touring the newly-opened Stephen Hawking Centre, an unbelievable expansion to an already amazing facility. Ok, that’s a lot of superlatives, but really… wow.
Picture walk with me…
The new part.
Car-free Sunday, too.
Queued. Good thing I registered.
Just followed the arrows on the self-guided walking tour. Smart.
There is not a perpendicular angle in this whole place. The drywallers must have been here forever.
Chalkboards everywhere and y’all knew this would resonate with my exploration of the Evidence of Human Life theme. Compare and contrast the PI wall-writing above with factory wall-writing I captured at the Rumpel Felt, American Standard, and RMS sites. Fantastic dynamic range of human thought.
Loved the different levels, separated by glass. Gives this feeling of continuous interior space while allowing insulated working areas. I think this is where architects really make their money.
View!
Speaking of architects: some were on hand with these models to talk about the building.
My Waterloo.
Hey, our friends from…
IQC were there, too. Stopped by to say hello to Martin and Evan.
Interactive in the courtyard.
This rig reminded me of the human-scale double slit experiment we did for Steel Rails. Nice.
I had camera envy.
Half expecting Ms. Frizzle to jump out…
Huge thanks to Perimeter Institute. You totally nailed it with friendly and informed volunteers (who brought funky physics toys for us to play with while in line), a well-laid out tour path that we could take at our own pace, availability of scientists to chat with, a well-organized tour reservation system, and a stellar facility.
Happy making,
DW
Thanks DW!
It was terrific to see such tremendous interest in PI and the science that this institute represents. We, the PI team, truly enjoyed hosting everyone.
Cheers,
Greg