Fridaygram: Esperanto translation, preserved forest, sky alignment

February 24, 2012


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By Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor

Google Translate is designed to help people understand each other regardless of which human language they use. So it’s appropriate that Google Translate now includes Esperanto, which was created more than 100 years ago to further the goal of a universal language. Esperanto is the 64th language supported by Google Translate, which makes it extra-special to nerds because, of course, 64 is 2^6, or 1000000 binary.

Going back before human language (or humans), a research team in China has discovered a forest that was buried in ash 300 million years ago. The team found intact trees and plants preserved just as they were back then. Now they just have to bring in some very large vacuum cleaners to tidy up the place.

Finally, here’s some astronomy fun for your weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon will converge and shine brightly in the night sky.



Go out and take a look!


Hey, glad to see you made it over to our new home on Google Developers Blog! We like it here and hope you do too. As you might know, on Fridays we take a break and do a Fridaygram post just for fun. Each Fridaygram item must pass only one test: it has to be interesting to us nerds. Ĝuu vian semajnfinon!