Six Science posts #95

First data viz, first PhD in CS, extrpolating the Nobel prizes and more

Author

Harshal Chhaya
November 11, 2025

Hi friend,

This issue is a bit delayed because I was out of town this weekend.

Was literally touching grass.

Recommended!

Also drove a tractor. Not recommended unless you have a very brave and competent co-pilot. Which I had, thankfully!

Thanks to everyone who hits ‘reply’ and sends a note. Plethora. That means a lot.

Please continue to read and reply. And send this to others who might enjoy it.

I scroll so you don’t have to.

Love,

Harshal

P.S. Thanks to reader and dear friend, VV, who sent me a really cool video for the newsletter about the interesting math behind the A4 paper size. Look for it in a future issue.

Also a thanks to reader and dear friend, KH who has asked for a sequel to the special issue on Venn diagrams (original special issue is below). Soon…

#1 🤯 

Woah! You can just do things!

In this case - visualize data in a whole new way and influence the next several centuries!

#2 🤯 

The geometry of algebra is cool! (and helpful!)

#3 🤯 

Her PhD thesis, "Inductive Inference on Computer Generated Patterns" (1965, Univ. of Wisconsin), explored how computers could mechanize inductive reasoning. It featured FORTRAN algorithms that inferred the nth derivative of a function from the first k examples, an early step in AI-like pattern recognition. (source: Grok)

Sister Mary Kenneth Keller also made history by being the only woman among the four students who helped develop the BASIC computer language (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) in the early 1960s at Dartmouth.

#4 🤯 

Extrapolation considered harmful. 😀 

#5 🤯 

I love proof’s with personality. 😀 

#6 🤯 

This is so true. We had hours of discussion (really, no exaggeration) on this.

Very important when working on drones, esp. for education.

The fun thing is that both are right. But one is also very wrong.

Which one do you think is right?

Hit ‘reply’ and let me know.

This is issue #95. Let’s see what makes 95 an interesting number:

  • the 30th distinct semiprime and the fifth of the form (5.q).

  • the last member in the third triplet of distinct semiprimes 93, 94, and 95.

  • the first composite Thabit number or a 321 number that is an integer of the form 3 x 2n − 1

    • 95 = 3 × 25 -1

    • (Harshal: I love these kind of named numbers with interesting characteristics)

  • Martin Luther's 95 Theses

    • Wikipedia says: The Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences is a list of propositions for an academic disputation written in 1517 by Martin Luther, then a professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, Germany. The Theses are retrospectively considered to have launched the Protestant Reformation and the birth of Protestantism, despite various quasi- or proto-Protestant groups having existed previously.

  • In statistics, a 95% confidence interval is considered satisfactory for most purposes.

  • Followers of the Baháʼí Faith use prayer beads to repeat the prayer Alláh-u-Abhá (God is most glorious) 95 times.

  • 95 — the racing number of Lightning McQueen from Disney Pixar's Cars franchise.

  • The international calling code for Myanmar

  • Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x line of operating systems, released in Summer 1995.

  • 95 is the atomic number of Americium - a synthetic chemical element, symbol Am. It is located under the lanthanide element europium and was thus named after the Americas by analogy.

    • Most americium is produced by uranium or plutonium being bombarded with neutrons in nuclear reactors – one tonne of spent nuclear fuel contains about 100 grams of americium.

    • Americium is used in the most common type of household smoke detector, which uses 241 Am in the form of americium dioxide as its source of ionizing radiation.

    • The amount of americium in a typical new smoke detector is 1 microcurie (37 kBq) or 0.29 microgram.

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

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