Newton's beads

Neat, isn't it? What I like about this is that it shows science's notorious 'spirit of curiosity' the pope argued against.

This guy doesn't just shrug it off as weird or miraculous. It's neat, sure, but he wants to know why the beads act like that. That 'spirit of curiosity' is the reason why we know anything at all - and especially why we keep building on a body of knowledge that gets bigger and bigger every year.

Anyway, this was one of The Most Amazing Science Images of 2013. Lots of neat stuff there!