THE POINTSMAN

 

In nineteenth century Britain, where trains carried the goods of an Empire, the railway pointsman pulled thousands of levers each day to shift tracks and send freight and passengers on their way. James Clerk Maxwell, the greatest physicist of the day, imagined a fantastic pointsman, one that could sort atoms themselves.  Now, the Pointsman Foundation has realized Maxwell's idea and the benefits of sorting almost imperceptible isotopes of atoms promise to be enormous.