Instruments Of Science

Sweden's largest optical telescope sits on a rooftop in Stockholm.

Home to the world’s oldest seismograph and a four-ton steel ball that makes its own earthquakes.

A 63-foot-tall swinging ball hypnotizes passersby, and proves to any remaining doubters that the Earth is spinning.

The beautiful, ornate weather station is the most popular geocache in Salzburg.

Giant telescope mirrors built in a spinning furnace under a college football stadium.

This golfball sized platinum iridium cylinder is the official starting point for all national weight calibrations

The marble facade hides a little-known medical museum with early surgical instruments and rare copies of canonical texts.

These beautiful objects represent beautiful ideas.

The U.S. Air Force has an anti-satellite laser weapon.

This Chinese-style quartz sundial was saved in its final hour.

An ancient instrument used to measure the waters of the Nile so Egyptian farmers would know whether to expect famine or flood.

A tiny monument to the unsuccessful attempt by Thomas Jefferson to place the prime meridian in Washington.

Martin Bricelj Baraga's monolithic sculpture measures the blueness of the sky, and changes color to match it.

The most accurate timepiece in the world.

Neither bomb blasts nor heartbeats escape the giant ears of this super sci-fi Arctic outpost.

Earth's tallest volcano is sacred to Native Hawaiians, and home to a dozen world-class observatories.

An ordinary pond with fish from out of this world.