The Sesame institute is made up of physicists from several countries that rarely talk to one another but whose scientists are determined to collaborate.
"It's funny to see how people react to it. Non-technical people steer wide and won't touch it, while engineers and designers, people you wouldn't think of as given to humor, will stand in front of it until it moves around or put a handkerchief on the wireless camera.
Whether climbing trees with her eight-year-old son Isaac, trying to put a dress on her four-year-old daughter Sonia, or running tests on the MINOS neutrino beam line, Debbie Harris is a problem solver and her mind is always busy. "It's really hard to be a parent," she says.
The future of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center involves a broadening from traditional particle physics experiments to research from subatomic to cosmological scales.
When was the last time you met three Einsteins? Masa Hokari and his son Harumi had this opportunity during Stanford University's Community Day, held in April.
Tomorrow's particle physics experiments are redrawing the map for scientific collaboration. Although the field has long been accustomed to large groups of scientists, life in the new CERN collaborations will surely be different.