Theseus (1950)

 

Claude Shannon, in 1952, demonstrates and explains the operation of the electro-mechanical maze solving mouse machine, Theseus, that he and and his wife and collaborator Betty Shannon developed.

More info:

"Mighty Mouse", MIT Technology Review, 2019-12-18

"Betty Shannon, Unsung Mathematical Genius", Scientific American, 2017-7-24

"Theseus", MIT Museum collections, accessed 2025-12-17

"Incidentally the things we learn for the telephone system have other applications."

The original video I linked to, below, has since been intentionally corrupted with auditory and visual noise and is almost unwatchable.  Perhaps this was done to get around copyright violations. How ironic for the source to be heavily corrupted while the communication channel is barely corrupted by noise, or at least is error corrected.

Martian drilled hole

After drilling into a sedimentary rock layer in Gale Crater, Curiosity is naturally curious as to what's in the hole. The MAHLI camera is used to get a closeup of the fine, clumpy dust around the perimeter of the hole, with a view into the hole. 

original images:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01361/mhli/1361MH0003990010502189C00_DXXX.jpg 
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01361/mhli/1361MH0003990010502195C00_DXXX.jpg

The diameter of the hole is about 1.6 cm.


Here the dark interior values are stretched to increase the contrast on bits and pieces at the bottom of the hole:

 (stereo pair, cross-view)

 Detail across center of the same images:

 (stereo pair, cross-view)

Another MAHLI photo with artificial light, focused near the bottom of the hole (http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01365/mhli/1365MH0006210000502375R00_DXXX.jpg):