Donald Glaser is a pioneering American physicist and neurobiologist and, for more than 50 years, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He was a brilliant young physicist at the University of Michigan, who became frustrated when he tried to observe the tracks of atom particles. Glaser experimented with using superheated liquid in a glass chamber, and found that strange particles would leave a track of bubbles as they passed through the liquid, and their tracks could be photographed. His new invention – called the “bubble chamber” – was ideal for use with...