A closer look

Staring at a retro oozing lamp is actually just observing a delicate lesson in density. The glass bottle holds two liquids that aggressively refuse to mix, perfectly engineered to have almost the exact same specific gravity. When the hot bulb at the base warms the wax, it expands just enough to float to the top. It eventually cools near the lid, shrinks, and falls back down in a hypnotic, endless loop of thermal expansion.