Visitors to the Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research will encounter the Static Landscape. This sculpture responds when you tilt its disk back and forth, building up a static charge. Inside the clear Plexiglas disk are thousands of tiny steel balls (each about the size of a grain of sand). The static steers the balls in wildly varying, intricate patterns. This hands-on exhibit is inspired by ice crystals and other cloud particles that bump into each other and transfer electrical charge, helping to create complex electrical fields inside thunderstorms.
