Particle Accelerator is not your average bedside lamp. It sits atop a 2.5-metre table, powered by two industrial black powder-coated boxes; the shorter one contains the electrical transformer, and the taller one encloses a vacuum system. A black marble base supports the final component: a hand-blown glass vacuum tube under a curving metal shade. At one end of the airtight tube, electrodes transmit a current through the vessel. In a demonstration of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, a column of luminous plasma ripples along the length of the glass tube, dramatically changing from pinkish-purple to white before dying out.

Project: Particle Accelerator

Studio: Castor Design, Canada

Designers: Kei Ng and Brian Richer with Nathan Watson