His greatest obsession began with a janitor. Late one night, Leif was trying to calibrate a wind tunnel when the building’s custodian, a man named Earl, wheeled his cart past the lab.
“Theory is a map,” he told his graduate students, usually while sawing a piece of acrylic. “But the real world is a jungle. And the jungle always cheats.” leif ristroph
While other physicists at NYU chased esoteric strings and dark matter, Leif chased the annoying things. The things that buzzed, wobbled, or fell over. His greatest obsession began with a janitor