‘Experimental design’: these words signal a section of a research paper that many readers might be inclined to scan fleetingly, before moving on to the actual findings. But a study in Nature this week ...

“One Guinness, please!” a customer says to a barkeep, who flips a branded pint glass and catches it under the tap. The barkeep begins a multistep pour process lasting precisely 119.5 seconds, which, ...