Six STEM Tweets #64

Sputnik 9, Firefly lander, periodic table and more

Author

Harshal Chhaya
March 10, 2025

Six STEM Tweets

Six tweets that celebrate engineering and all things STEM.

I scroll so you don’t have to.

I heard from several folks that they had no idea that not just one, not two but THREE private lunar missions are in progress.

Newsletters like this are a very effective way to get out of the social media trap and keep up with news that matters.

Forward this to a friend who would enjoy keeping up with interesting happenings.

#1 🤯 

The Firefly team is posting amazing photos on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflyspace/

#2 🤯 

Good news: Two landers reached the moon last week

Bad news: One of them failed to land correctly and is non operational

However, the the fact that two private landers reached the moon within days of each other is a HUGE deal. Also, every failure is a lesson on how to do better next time.

#3 🤯 

The urge to pigeonhole things comes handy once in a while 😁 

#4 🤯 

#5 🤯 

From Sputnik to SpaceX (and Firefly) in 64 years.

Where will we be in the next 64 years?

#6 🤯 

The absolute value function always looks to me like like a ‘ta - da!’ pose celebrating the end of a perfect gymnastic routine - \./

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)

This is issue #64. Here’s some fun facts about 64:

  • The code for international direct dial calls to New Zealand (+64)

  • Atomic number of Gadolinium, symbol Gd. It is named after the mineral gadolinite, one of the minerals in which gadolinium is found, itself named for the Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin.

    • The main uses of gadolinium, in addition to use as a contrast agent for MRI scans, are in nuclear reactors, in alloys, as a phosphor in medical imaging, as a gamma ray emitter, in electronic devices, in optical devices, and in superconductors.

  • The first whole number (greater than one) that is both a perfect square, and a perfect cube

  • In computer programming, Base64 (also known as tetrasexagesimal) is a group of binary-to-text encoding schemes that transforms binary data into a sequence of printable characters, limited to a set of 64 unique characters.

  • A chessboard has 64 squares

  • 64 is a very common number is computing due to it being a power of 2 - 64 = 26

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