N. Chen

In the tropical Pacific Ocean lives a pendulum. Its position is the water temperature in the Niño 3.4 region, and gravity is the annual cycle that pulls the system toward warm or cold extremes. Random wind gusts strike the pendulum, and each hit either amplifies the swing or damps it.

A high-speed collision knocked a neutron out of a helium-8 nucleus, and for an instant a helium-7 nucleus appeared, like an overloaded shelf shedding three books at once. This fleeting 'sound' of decay was captured for the first time: three neutrons flew apart, leaving behind an ordinary helium-4 nucleus.