As nuclei spin, the balance of factors is perturbed, and at very high angular momenta nuclei may adopt odd shapes resembling peanuts, bananas, jumping jacks, or sea urchins. Experimenters are exploring these dizzy nuclei with the 8-pi Detector. Already, researchers have used the detector to explore a new way of studying these unstable nuclei. Typically the nuclei of interest are studied as fragments in the cyclotron beam, meaning they are traveling at high velocity relative to detector, and the resulting spectrum is smeared. To eliminate this smearing, researchers are looking at fragments that remained in the target and decayed in place.
People are curious and they are toolmakers.
The Time Projection Chamber.