The Science Museum at London's Crystal Palace is by all accounts a pretty cool place. Among other things, it appears to have one of the wicked-damned-cool hands-on kids exhibits along the lines of San Francisco's Exploratorium. You know the kind of place - the one's built for grownups with grownup money but labeled "kids" to make all of us feel better about how freaking cool magnets are.

The museum website includes a fabulous little gem - LaunchBall. Launchball is one in a long line of games inspired by The Incredible Machine, itself inspired by the insanity of Rube Goldberg's cartoons. The objective is familiar to any fan of physics games - get the ball from point A to point B using limited tools.

What makes LaunchBall so good isn't the premise, but the execution. Launchball gives the player tools with reasoning - heat conducts through some materials but not others. Water can freeze and boil. Wind powers turbines and electricity flows through conduits or Tesla coils. Each tool and its application is explained the way you'd expect from a science museum. I've already re-learned a few things I'd forgotten since College. The graphics are done with the minimalism and polish of a game from introversion, and the puzzle design is clever and inspired. The game won best-in-show at this years South by Southwest interactive competition. A worthy use of a long lunch break.