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- Six STEM Tweets - May 22 2024
Six STEM Tweets - May 22 2024
Smelly stamps, origins of binary, DNA of ancient physics jokes and more
Harshal Chhaya
May 22, 2024
Six STEM Tweets
Six tweets that celebrate engineering and all things STEM.
I scroll so you don’t have to.
The weekend issue got skipped because I was out of town with limited access to email. I got the opportunity to celebrate a brand new cohort of engineers at a college graduation. I loved seeing the next generation of inventors, scientists and cross-disciplinary learners.
We are back to our routine now.
Have you shared this newsletter with a friend yet? If not, why not? Is it too nerdy? Not nerdy enough?
Let me know!
If it’s the right level of nerdiness, please share with a friend. They will appreciate it.
#1
Scratch-and-sniff baguette stamps? Issued on the feast day of the patron saint of bakers? France is operating on another level
— Anne Thériault (@anne_theriault)
5:29 PM • May 18, 2024
Trust the French to do something really fun with food and philately (interest in postage stamps). So cool!
On May 16, which happens to also be the feast of Saint-Honoré, the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, La Poste, the nation's national postal service, put a brand-new stamp in circulation that features a lovely drawing of a baguette, a piece of bread so central to French culture that it made its way onto UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.
And while the drawing is lovely, that's not even the coolest part. You see, this stamp is a full scratch-and-sniff experience, making it smell just like the freshly baked version, ensuring whoever gets your letter will be seething with jealousy once they get a whiff.
How cool is that! I love multi-sensory experiences!
#2
in two weeks, 6 planets will align in the early morning sky!! you’ll be able to see mercury, mars, jupiter, and saturn with the naked eye, but will need a telescope or powerful binoculars to see uranus and neptune.
try and see it if you can!! ✨— Jasmine 🌌🔭 (@astro_jaz)
8:26 PM • May 20, 2024
Between the eclipse and the aurora and this, sky watchers are having a stellar year!
#3
Amicable numbers are two numbers for which the sum of the proper divisors of each is equal to the other
Ancient Greeks knew of only a single pair: 220, 284
Although 1.2B amicable numbers since been found, the question of whether there are infinitely many remains an open problem
— Fermat's Library (@fermatslibrary)
1:09 PM • May 20, 2024
I didn’t know of “amicable” numbers till now. Pretty interesting and friendly.
#4
Them: What’s a Velociraptor?
Normal people: the dinosaur in the kitchen of Jurassic Park
Me: Distanceraptor devided by Timeraptor.
— Immo Landwerth (@terrajobst)
7:25 PM • May 19, 2024
Ancient physics jokes never die, they just get re-created from DNA.
#5
We had to think about this one for a while 🤔
— Royal Institution (@Ri_Science)
11:26 AM • May 19, 2024
I love this. Makes you think. About the meaning of words.
#6
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a German polymath, developed the binary numeral system (base-2) in 1679. This system, which uses only two digits (0 and 1), is the foundation of virtually all modern computing and digital technology. x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Physics In History (@PhysInHistory)
2:38 AM • May 19, 2024
I did not know that Leibniz developed the binary number system. The on/off, 1/0 system seems simple and simplistic but it powers our modern world.
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