Did Glaser invent the cloud chamber?
No, that's a common mix-up. The cloud chamber was invented by C.T.R. Wilson in 1911—it uses supersaturated vapor to show particle tracks. My bubble chamber is a different beast: it uses a superheated liquid instead of vapor. The key advantage is density. Liquids are a thousand times denser than gases, so particles interact more often, and you can see rarer events. The bubble chamber also has a faster cycle time—you can take pictures every few seconds. I got the idea while drinking beer and watching bubbles form in a glass. I thought, 'Why not use bubbles in a liquid to detect particles?' It's a classic case of taking a simple observation and turning it into a tool. Wilson's cloud chamber was brilliant, but it was limited to low-energy particles. My gadget opened up high-energy physics. So no, I didn't invent the cloud chamber—I invented something better for the job.
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