What? Well, by Jove! Hey, he’s gone.
{ No one knows exactly why the international prototype of the kilogram, as pampered a hunk of platinum and iridium as ever existed, appears to weigh less than it did when it was manufactured in the late 19th century. The kilogram — the universal standard against which all other kilograms are measured — in Sèvres, France, in controlled conditions set out in 1889, in an underground vault that can be opened only with three different keys possessed by three different people. The kilogram is the last base unit of measurement to be expressed in terms of a manufactured artifact. (Its cousin, the international prototype of the meter, was retired from active duty in 1960, when scientists redefined the meter. | NY Times | full story }
