You almost miss them. There is a normal glass door on the side wall of the quantum optics area of the new permanent exhibition in the Vienna Technical Museum. No main entrance, more of a technical detail. You can open it a little bit – maybe twenty centimeters. And suddenly the noise hits you: a loud, pounding hum. Vacuum pumps. Close the door – and the silence is back. It’s a small hint of what research sounds like in everyday life: not like celebratory fanfare, but like noise and strenuous work in windowless rooms.
