This Email Will Self-Destruct in 8 Minutes

July 22, 2009

One of my first jobs in journalism was as an editorial assistant at Astronomy magazine, located in Wisconsin. One of my responsibilities was to read and answer reader letters and emails. Back in 1999 there was a big controversy about the Cassini spacecraft doing a flyby of Earth, to gather up some gravitational energy and slingshot out to Venus. The rockets are nuclear-powered and lots of people were nervous about that, thinking that some radiation could find it's way to Earth.

The magazine had a story about the controversy coming up in a future issue. We advertised that upcoming story in the magazine and someone wrote a letter railing against us for even thinking about publishing such a piece. And also criticized the article and the author.

Expert Comments on Our Fascination with 123456789

July 09, 2009

Yesterday I posted a blog about how the time and date was 123456789.  While I writing the blog, I also emailed a math expert at Harvard, Oliver Knill, and asked him why humans are so fascinated by numerical sequences such as this. Here is his reply:

This type of numerology is not so much done by professional mathematicians, more by amateurs, but that does not diminish its surprise.

Mathematicians look at it rather as a curiosity. But there an be some interesting combinatorial problems as you mention like how many times do such situations occur in dates. One also bent the rule a bit in this case: the date 12:34:56.7.8.9 certainly occurred in 1909 and will again in 2109. To make the date surprising, we have taken the centuries out when counting the years.

123456789

July 08, 2009

When I was a kid, I wished that my phone number was 123-456-7890. I would remember it much better than my real number and even though the sequence is so common, having a phone number with those digits seemed totally off the way.

I thought it was just a kid thing. But apparently, even adults are fascinated with this sequence of numbers. There's all kinds of chatter about today's digital date, which at 12:34:56 (this morning and this afternoon), the day was 12:34:56 07/08/09. And at 4:56 this afternoon, the digital date will be 4:56 07/08/09.

But it's not just the appearance of this sequence in the date that gets people al goose-bumpy. This person is impressed with a car's odometer that has reached 123456789.

These people seem freaked out by the fact that this number shows up on their caller ID.

This guy has figured out a mathematical calculation that produces a sum of 100.
It's this: 1/2*3/4*56+7+8*9

And these people have a web site devoted to it.

Why are we so obsessed with this sequence?
I called 1-234-567-8900 just now to see if anyone would pick up and explain it to me. But the line was busy.

Photo: iStockPhoto

Variety is the Spice of Tech

March 16, 2009

This week on Discovery Tech, we have a mix of stories, news, podcasts, blogs, puzzles and other articles. Come back daily to check 'em out.

Monday: Clark Boyd's Technology Podcast. CCTV in the U.K., Corporate Snooping in Germany, U.S. DriveCams, and the EYEborg.
A bit of theme runs through this week's Technology Podcast from PRI's The World. That theme is surveillance. In fact, we take a hard look at all manner of technologies and entities that are, in fact, looking at you.

Tuesday: Puzzle. Biofuels made from sustainable crops are showing promise. And scientists are looking at everything from Algae to Jatropa.

Wednesday: Engineering Works podcast. Gene Charleton looks at how food engineers are using a microwave-like device and irradiation to get rid of unpleasant bacteria like salmonella and E-coli that can make us sick.

Thursday: Slideshow. Math Model Grows Snowflakes

Friday: Top 10 Uses for the Large Hadron Collider

Image: David Griffeath