Cool science stuff

Maybe this should be on the "things that make you feel old" thread.

Jobs and Wozniak incorporated Apple in January of 1977 and showed the Apple II at a Japanese computer fair a month before Voyager 1 launched. IBM's iconic 5150 PC was still four years away. The Commodore 64 wouldn't be available until 1982.

I was still programming in Fortran and Basic using keypunch cards and having to rent time on the university's main frame. (COBOL and Assembler can eat dirt.)

 

The PBS documentary on Voyager's 40th anniversary is incredible.

The Farthest

 

The Voyagers (Voyager 2, specifically) was one of the wonders of my childhood. I think I read every book our public library had on it, other space probes, and planetary science in general by the time I was 14. I remember the flyby of Neptune in 1989 being mind-blowing front page news for the better part of a week.
Too bad I sucked at advanced math and wound up going into journalism instead of astrophysics. The passion and interest were there, but the skills never were.

 

Too bad for me, too. Some friends went that route, and they made a shit-ton of money.

 

Any new graphene news lately?

 

Scientists use graphene to squeeze light to just one atom thick paving the way for tiny switches and sensors

 

Uranus, the planet that makes 13-year-old boys snicker in science class, really does smell like ... Uranus.

Uranus Smells Like Rotten Eggs

 

Spock's home planet discovered?

Exoplanet News: Astronomers have found Vulcan!

 

Number 9, Number 9.

New Discovery Stirs Up Signs of the Elusive Planet 9 | Science | Smithsonian