Think for a moment about the number of electronic components in
your life that are still in use after 35 years. TV? Unlikely,
given the propensity for the old-style tubes and stabilizers to
fail. Computer? If you're still using a 1977 model, there's
probably a smartphone that has more processing power in a
smaller space -- by a factor of thousands. There's one piece
still chugging along, however, out of range for any technician
to make a service call yet still doing its duties. Voyager 1
again made the news recently because of what it is finding at
the very far limits of our solar system. The probe launched in
1977 is still working, sending back data on the "weather" it is
encountering in deep space. An instrument originally built to
last four years has lasted nine times as long and has detected
the motion of charged particles in a region of space where the
sun is seemingly but another of many distant stars. Will such
discoveries have a practical application here on Earth? Perhaps,
because the interaction of