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Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by russfink on Thursday May 02, 2019 @06:46AM (#19806480)
Just how was this discovered? "Hey, no food or drink in the lab. DARN IT - look what you did now!"
Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by lm28469 on Thursday May 02, 2019 @08:21AM (#19807059)
That's how we ended up with microwave ovens.

> In 1945, the specific heating effect of a high-power microwave beam was accidentally discovered by Percy Spencer, an American self-taught engineer from Howland, Maine. Employed by Raytheon at the time, he noticed that microwaves from an active radar set he was working on started to melt a chocolate bar he had in his pocket.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven#Discovery

Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by dna113 on Thursday May 02, 2019 @10:23AM (#19808188)
Lol what else was melting if the chocolate in his pocket was melting?
Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by gdubs on Thursday May 02, 2019 @10:51AM (#19808493)
This is only barely related but when we bought our house the (ancient) gas stove was malfunctioning. I looked up the brand (Modern Maid, I think) and was very surprised to learn they were a subsidiary of Raytheon. The thought of a gas appliance made by a weapons manufacturer was, a little unsettling. Replaced that thing pretty quickly.
Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by sl1ck731 on Thursday May 02, 2019 @12:05PM (#19809368)
I don't understand this. Were you afraid your stove was a weapon in disguise?
Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by gdubs on Friday May 03, 2019 @01:08AM (#19815744)
No, it was a joke. I only know Raytheon as a weapons / explosives company. Had no idea they had a consumer products arm at some point (unlike GE which at one point owned everything including film studios, which is fairly common knowledge.) Given that we were concerned we had a leaky gas appliance...
Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by MS90 on Thursday May 02, 2019 @11:42AM (#19809081)
Don't go looking too deep into ol' General Electric then.
Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by whenchamenia on Thursday May 02, 2019 @01:13PM (#19810086)
Better throw out all your GE, GM, and even Mattel products then. Nearly every major manufacturer does, or has at one time, been involved in weapons manufacture.
Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by sl1ck731 on Thursday May 02, 2019 @03:40PM (#19811867)
Basically any computing device as well since all the processor manufacturers have defense contracts.

Interestingly there is a rendering of what appears to be a Predator drone on the AMD website:

https://www.amd.com/en/products/embedded-aero-defense-soluti...

Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by maimeowmeow on Thursday May 02, 2019 @04:50PM (#19812740)
Thats it, Im only going to support intel from now on. /s
Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by gdubs on Friday May 03, 2019 @12:56AM (#19815707)
People: I replaced it because it was malfunctioning, not actually because it had a connection to Raytheon. It was too old to be worth fixing.
Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by totoglazer on Thursday May 02, 2019 @11:32PM (#19815308)
Also those hipster glass canning jars from Ball.
Re:Caffeine Cranks Up Solar Cells by michelb on Thursday May 02, 2019 @06:54AM (#19806524)
I'm wondering if somewhere someone has a program running a simulation on combinations of chemicals to see what would happen.