Paul Kiernan is a Staff Engineer at Reddit in San Francisco. He enjoys
software development, particle physics, cooking, and travel.
This animated background is a simulation of a
Bubble Chamber,
an instrument that was used to detect electrically charged particles
in the earliest days of high-energy particle physics experimentation.
The patterns demonstrate properties of natural geometric decay as
charged particles move through the magnetic field of the Bubble
Chamber. I find them to be a strikingly beautiful natural phenomenon.