It’s easy to forget that some pieces of technology we take for granted changed the world when they were first made available. One of the most transformative pieces of technology in is the telescope. The craft of these devices are truly astonishing. Here’s more from UK Science Museum:
Astronomers experimented with different recipes for speculum metal over the centuries, but the two main ingredients were copper and tin. Newton added small amounts of arsenic to his, arguing that it made the metal whiter and more reflective. He did at least take some basic precautionary measures when melting this poisonous substance to make his alloy, ‘bewaring in the mean time, not to draw in breath near the pernicious fumes’ (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 7 (1672)).
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
