Is there really anything more Alabama than blowing things up, making bright flashes, and winding up with all your hair standing on end?
Of course not, and that’s why Robert Jemison Van De Graaff just couldn’t help himself. The physicist was born in Tuscaloosa in the early 20th century and attended the University of Alabama where his brother William was the Tide’s first football All-American. Eventually, Robert moved on to Oxford, Princeton, and MIT, and in the meantime he created the now-famous Van De Graaff generator.
You know, the big metal ball that makes all of your hair stand on end.