Six Science posts #83

WWW birthday, Curiosity rover birthday, Poetry in Venn diagrams and more

Author

Harshal Chhaya
August 10, 2025

Six tweets that celebrate engineering and all things STEM.

I scroll so you don’t have to.

Thanks to the folks who forward this and share this with their social circles. Let’s cultivate curiosity!

(Thanks to the reader who asked about past special topic-specific issues. I have added a list of links at the bottom. Is there a specific topic you would like to have an entire issue on? Hit “reply” and let me know.)

#1 🤯 

Andy is referring to the passing of the third astronaut on the Apollo 8 mission that took this photo called “Earthrise" - on Christmas Eve, 1968.

With Jim Lovell's death this week, the last astronaut who witnessed that historic moment live—in person from lunar orbit—is gone.

Jim Lovell was also on the Apollo 13 mission that had an accident and tested NASA’s recovery protocols. Tom Hanks played Jim Lovell in the “Apollo 13” movie

#2 🤯 

From sharing Physics papers among CERN folks to sharing memes worldwide - the web has come a long way. Thanks, Tim Berners-Lee!

#3 🤯 

If they ever need a subject to research the impact of not exercising following not learning, I volunteer!

#4 🤯 

The National Air and Space museum has a really good information section about the Wright brothers and their inventions - from idea to actual flight and subsequent widespread adulation. Read it at https://airandspace.si.edu/explore/stories/wright-brothers

Also, can you imagine the plane being transported to Europe by ship? It must have felt so constrained. :(

#5 🤯 

We have a teenager robot running around on another planet! 🤩 🤯 

#6 🤯 

I am a huge fan of Brian Bilston. His way with words is impressive.

And I love Venn diagrams (See below for a link to a special issue on the topic)

So this is absolutely brilliant.

What a beautiful way to show the concept - with three interlinked poems

This is issue #83. Let’s see what makes 83 an interesting number.

83 is:

  • the sum of three consecutive primes (23 + 29 + 31)

  • the sum of five consecutive primes (11 + 13 + 17 + 19 + 23)

  • a “safe” prime - because it can be written as 2p+1 where p is also a prime, 41 in this case

  • a “Sophie Germain” prime - because 2×83 + 1 is also a prime

  • a super-prime - because it is the 23rd prime and 23 is a prime number.

  • a fantastic Bollywood movie depicting the unexpected and thrilling win of the Indian national cricket team in the 1983 cricket world cup - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/83_(film)

  • the atomic number of Bismuth (symbol: Bi)

    • Bismuth was formerly understood to be the element with the highest atomic mass whose nuclei do not spontaneously decay. However, in 2003 it was found to be very slightly radioactive. The metal's only primordial isotope, bismuth-209, undergoes alpha decay with a half-life roughly a billion times longer than the estimated age of the universe. (Aside: how do you even measure this?)

    • Bismuth metal has been known since ancient times and it was one of the first 10 metals to have been discovered.

  • is a reserved code for country code expansion for international direct dialing. There is no country with country code 83. (81 is Japan and 82 is South Korea)

  • 83 is also the numeric equivalent of my initials - H C 😊 

About

This newsletter is my way of sharing interesting science-related news with my curious friends. I enjoy finding science and math connections in our world.

Please share this newsletter with others. Let’s encourage curiosity.

- Harshal (@hschhaya on X/Twitter)

That’s it for this issue.

Hit ‘reply’ to tell me what you think.

And hit ‘forward’ to share with your friends and family.

Let’s all celebrate science and engineering and curiosity.

Best wishes,

Harshal

Special past issues