Liquid helium at ultra-low temperatures flows without friction — like an ideal lubricant. Within it, whirlpools form, similar to ordinary ones in water, but their rotational strength shifts only in strict steps, like a record player — only 33, 45, or 78 rpm. This law, discovered by Lev Landau, seemed eternal.

But when scientists introduced spy dust grains into the helium, they sometimes began to spin furiously, as if the record played at every speed at once. Such a "clump" ought to instantly fall apart, like a vinyl on a mode that doesn't exist. Yet the dust grain held firm inside, and the vortex itself lived suspiciously long.

The discovery shakes up vortex science in frictionless fluids and promises insights into other similar media — from the cores of neutron stars to atomic nuclei.