Six STEM Tweets

Six tweets that celebrate engineering and all things STEM.

I scroll so you don’t have to.

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. Keep them coming.

And if you like this, share it with a friend. Ask them to sign-up so you don’t have to remember to forward it to them each time you get it.

#1

Dr. Aldrin writes: May 5th, 1961 was a milestone day in American history – Alan Shepard became the first American in space aboard Freedom 7 and the second person in the world to enter space. The suborbital mission was only 15 minutes long…but it officially kicked off America’s human spaceflight program in a spectacular way, and I knew I wanted to be a part of it.

Being one of the first few folks in a new frontier like space means you trust your team - the ones who built the rocket, the ones who did the math on your trajectory, the ones who will make sure you get back. This is the ultimate trust exercise.

<fist bump>, Alan Shepard!

#2

That link is https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/fall06/cos561/papers/cerf74.pdf - a PDF titled “A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication” that describes packet switching. This is one of those “obvious now but a big deal when it was first proposed” technologies.

Packet switching is how the Internet works. How you are reading this.

No packet switching, no TCP/IP, no Internet, no WiFi. Nothing. Just you and me talking on rotary phones. Well maybe, push button ones. But not even that because I don’t have your number and you don’t have mine.

Vint and Bob are the OGs of networking. All of us who followed them owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

#3

I share his sense of awe at our universe and our ability to figure it out - over time.

#4

Yep! The faster an atom moves, the hotter it gets.

I mean temperature-wise. It might also become more attractive to other atoms, I have no idea. I am not an atom.

#5

Fruity puns are the juiciest.

#6

I am a big fan of sunrises. They are beautiful.

But a sunrise on another planet? Captured by a robot made by humans? That’s next level! (I almost said “out of this world” but that would have been too obvious, right? :)

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