Science & Industry

What Happened On March 15th? In 1985, technology would begin to shift gears. On March 15th, the internet as we know it was born, with the registration of the world's first domain name: Symbolics.com. Although the news did not exactly "exhilarate" people, this first registration laid the foundation for the vast and interconnected web today. Symbolics.com belonged to Symbolics Inc., a computer systems company at the forefront of artificial intelligence research. This company, heavily involved in symbolic manipulation (a core concept in AI), chose a domain name that perfectly reflected their innovative work. While Symbolics.com is widely recognized as the first registered domain, there's a minor historical debate. Nordu.net, a domain for a Scandinavian research collaboration, claims...

What Happened On March 14th? Today in the year 2018, Stephen Hawking passed away. The brilliant physicist, who defied a devastating diagnosis to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos, passed away peacefully at his Cambridge, England home at the age of 76. Of course now, Hawking's character is up for debate after being named on flight logs to Epstein's Island. Before we get into that, his life story demonstrated extraordinary resilience. Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the young age of 21, doctors gave him a mere two years to live. However, Hawking refused to accept this prognosis. He lived a full life and developed theories on black holes, cosmology, and the very nature of reality itself. He is best known for his discovery that black holes emit r...

What Happened On March 7th? Communication history would never ever be the same following March 7th of the year, 1876. On this day, the United States Patent Office issued patent number 174,465 to Alexander Graham Bell for his invention, the telephone. Though it feels like decades and decades ago, Bell's patent allowed for new opportunities, changing the way we connect with one another. From the 1876 original, to the push-button phone, and to the modern iPhone that almost 1.5 billion people use, who knows what's in store next? While Bell is widely credited with the invention of the telephone, the race to develop a method for transmitting speech electrically was a tight one, filled with controversy. Bell, a young Scottish immigrant, was working on his "harmonic telegraph" when he stum...

What Happened On March 6th? On March 6th of 1899, a German pharmaceutical company, Friedrich Bayer & Co. registered the name Aspirin as a trademark for their newly developed drug, acetylsalicylic acid. This seemingly mundane trademark registration would pave the way for one of the most widely used and trusted medications in the world. Interestingly, the name "Aspirin" wasn't derived from a scientific term or medicinal source. It's a combination of two words: "spirea", a genus of flowering plants related to the willow tree, and "acid", referencing the drug's chemical composition. The active ingredient in Aspirin, salicin, was initially extracted from the bark of willow trees and used for centuries for its pain-relieving properties. However, this natural remedy came with its downsides – ...

What Happened On February 28th? On February 28th, 1953 at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, two scientists, James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick, made a discovery about life's most important molecule, DNA. More specifically, what they found was the double helix structure of DNA, which revolutionized our understanding of all life forms. Being such a small molecule, if you unravelled all DNA molecules in your body and lined them up, it would stretch over 110 billion miles! From wherever your position is in the world right now, your molecules would elongate to the Sun and back over 600 times! DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid, holds the blueprint for life, and cracking its code gave us information about heredity, disease, and the very essence of what it means to be alive. ...

What Happened On February 20th? Cape Canaveral, Florida buzzed with nervous energy on a Tuesday morning in 1962, as thousands of viewers tapped in to watch the "Friendship 7" takeoff. Astronaut John Glenn, one of the original "Mercury Seven," strapped himself into the cramped Mercury capsule, atop a towering Atlas rocket. His mission was to become the first American to orbit the Earth and prove America's mettle in the tense Cold War space race against the Soviet Union. At exactly 9:32 AM EST, the Atlas roared to life, pinning Glenn against his seat with G-forces as it shot him skyward. Minutes later, after releasing the capsule, the fiery rocket peeled away, leaving Glenn in exhilarating weightlessness. "The sensation is absolutely delightful," he reported back to Earth. Friendship 7 slipp...

What Happened On February 19th? On a Monday morning in 1878, the entire globe was welcomed into a new era, where technology would be changed forever. In his bustling New Jersey laboratory, inventor Thomas Edison patented a revolutionary device that would forever change the way we experience sound: the phonograph. This was the first machine capable of both recording and replaying sound, which changed the trajectory of communication and entertainment history today! While working on improvements for the telegraph, he stumbled upon the idea of catching and replicating sound waves. Initially, he envisioned a machine that would be able to record and transmit telegraph messages, but after experimenting with various materials, he finally settled on a tinfoil-coated cylinder which caught the vibrat...

What Happened On February 13th? In 2004 on this day, astronomers made a truly astronomical discovery, not with telescopes pointed towards the sky, but by analyzing data collected from a space observatory called the Chandra X-ray Observatory. They identified a celestial object located roughly 50 light-years away in the constellation "Centaurus," classified as a white dwarf star named BPM 37093 or more commonly known as "Lucy." However, this wasn't your average star. Upon further analysis, these astronomers realized that BPM 37093 wasn't a star made of hydrogen and helium like our Sun, but rather a crystallized remnant of a massive star that had reached the end of its life. What's even more astonishing is that the majority of its mass, around 90%, had transformed into one giant diamond! The ...

What Happened On February 1st? On the morning of February 1st, 2003, thousands of spectators awaited and anticipated the return of the Space Shuttle Columbia in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spaceship with its seven astronauts onboard, was moments away from completing its 28th mission, (STS-107) an outstanding return from 16 days in space. But instead of the touchdown and celebration that people around the globe were waiting for, we were met with a chilling silence. Just minutes before re-entry, at 8:59 AM EST, radio contact with Columbia abruptly ceased. Sensors indicated anomalies, then silence again. An uneasy dread began to creep around those watching, both at the launch site and around the world. As data trickled in, the worst fears were confirmed. Columbia, struck by a piece of f...

What Happened On January 28th? January 28, 1986 changed the course of space exploration forever. On this morning, the Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying seven astronauts, tragically exploded just 73 seconds after liftoff. Falling from 65,000 feet in the sky, the orbiter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean at 200 miles per hour. The Challenger's final mission, designated STS-51-L, included a diverse crew of astronauts, notably Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first private citizen and teacher in space. The launch had already been delayed due to technical issues and unusually cold temperatures. Yet, decisions were called to proceed, which raised apprehensions among NASA engineers. At 11:38 am EST, the Challenger lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island Florida. Tr...