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Computing Pioneer Clive Sinclair Dies at 81

(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 12, 2006 British transport pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair poses for a photograph during the launch of his A-bike, during a press launch at the Design Museum in London.(Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)
(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 12, 2006 British transport pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair poses for a photograph during the launch of his A-bike, during a press launch at the Design Museum in London.(Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)
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Computing Pioneer Clive Sinclair Dies at 81

(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 12, 2006 British transport pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair poses for a photograph during the launch of his A-bike, during a press launch at the Design Museum in London.(Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)
(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 12, 2006 British transport pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair poses for a photograph during the launch of his A-bike, during a press launch at the Design Museum in London.(Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)

Clive Sinclair, the British inventor who pioneered the pocket calculator and affordable home computers, reportedly died on Thursday at the age of 81.

He passed away at his home in London after fighting cancer for more than a decade, UK media said, prompting tributes from many who fondly recalled their first experience of computing in the early 1980s.

He was still working on inventions last week "because that was what he loved doing", his daughter Belinda Sinclair told the BBC.

"He was inventive and imaginative and for him it was exciting and an adventure, it was his passion," she added.

Clive Sinclair's groundbreaking products included the first portable electronic calculator in 1972.

The Sinclair ZX80, launched in 1980 and sold for less than £100 at the time, brought home computing to the masses in Britain and beyond.

Other early home computers such as the Apple II cost far more, and Sinclair's company was the first in the world to sell more than a million machines.

Follow-up models included the ZX Spectrum in 1982, which boasted superior power and a more user-friendly interface, turbo-charging the revolution in gaming and programming at home.

British movie director Edgar Wright, whose latest film "Last Night in Soho" premiered in Venice this month, paid tribute to Sinclair on Twitter.

"For someone whose first glimpses of a brave new world were the terrifying graphics of '3D Monster Maze' on the ZX81, I'd like to salute tech pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair," he said.

"He made 21st Century dreams feel possible. Will bash away on the rubber keys of a Spectrum in your honor. RIP."

- 'He changed my life' -
Tom Watson, former deputy leader of Britain's opposition Labor Party, tweeted: "This man changed the course of my life.

"And arguably, the digital age for us in the UK started with the Sinclair ZX80, when thousands of kids learnt to code using 1k of RAM.

"For us, the Spectrum was like a Rolls Royce with 48k."

However, not all of Sinclair's inventions were a runaway success.

The Sinclair C5, a battery-powered tricycle touted as the future of eco-friendly transport, became an expensive flop after it was launched in 1985.

But in retrospect, it was ahead of its time, given today's attention on climate change and the vogue for electric vehicles.

"You cannot exaggerate Sir Clive Sinclair's influence on the world," gaming journalist and presenter Dominik Diamond tweeted.

"And if we'd all stopped laughing long enough to buy a C5 he'd probably have saved the environment."

Born in 1940, Sinclair left school at the age of 17, becoming a technical journalist writing specialist manuals.

Aged 22, he formed his first company, making mail-order radio kits, including what was then the world's smallest transistor radio.

Other ventures included digital watches and an early version of a flat-screen television.

He was knighted in 1983.

Ironically, in a 2013 interview with the BBC, Sinclair revealed that he did not himself use computers.

"I don't like distraction," he explained.

"If I had a computer, I'd start thinking I could change this, I could change that, and I don't want to. My wife very kindly looks after that for me."

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Nearby Sculptor Galaxy Revealed in Ultra-Detailed Galactic Image

This undated handout image released by European Southern Observatory on June 17, 2025 shows a detailed, thousand-color image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). (Handout / European Southern Observatory / AFP)
This undated handout image released by European Southern Observatory on June 17, 2025 shows a detailed, thousand-color image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). (Handout / European Southern Observatory / AFP)
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Nearby Sculptor Galaxy Revealed in Ultra-Detailed Galactic Image

This undated handout image released by European Southern Observatory on June 17, 2025 shows a detailed, thousand-color image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). (Handout / European Southern Observatory / AFP)
This undated handout image released by European Southern Observatory on June 17, 2025 shows a detailed, thousand-color image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). (Handout / European Southern Observatory / AFP)

The Sculptor galaxy is similar in many respects to our Milky Way. It is about the same size and mass, with a similar spiral structure. But while it is impossible to get a full view of the Milky Way from the vantage point of Earth because we are inside the galaxy, Sculptor is perfectly positioned for a good look.

Astronomers have done just that, releasing an ultra-detailed image of the Sculptor galaxy on Wednesday obtained with 50 hours of observations using one of the world's biggest telescopes, the European Southern Observatory's Chile-based Very Large Telescope.

The image shows Sculptor, also called NGC 253, in around 4,000 different colors, each corresponding to a specific wavelength in the optical spectrum.

Because various galactic components emit light differently across the spectrum, the observations are providing information at unprecedented detail on the inner workings of an entire galaxy, from star formation to the motion of interstellar gas on large scales. Conventional images in astronomy offer only a handful of colors, providing less information.

The researchers used the telescope's Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, or MUSE, instrument.

"NGC 253 is close enough that we can observe it in remarkable detail with MUSE, yet far enough that we can still see the entire galaxy in a single field of view," said astronomer Enrico Congiu, a fellow at the European Southern Observatory in Santiago, and lead author of research being published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

"In the Milky Way, we can achieve extremely high resolution, but we lack a global view since we're inside it. For more distant galaxies, we can get a global view, but not the fine detail. That's why NGC 253 is such a perfect target: it acts as a bridge between the ultra-detailed studies of the Milky Way and the large-scale studies of more distant galaxies. It gives us a rare opportunity to connect the small-scale physics with the big-picture view," Congiu said.

Sculptor is about 11 million light-years from Earth, making it one of the closest big galaxies to the Milky Way. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

Like the Milky Way, it is a barred spiral galaxy, meaning it has an elongated structure extending from its nucleus, with spiral arms extending from the ends of the bar. Its diameter of about 88,000 light-years is similar to the Milky Way's, as is its total mass. One major difference is Sculptor's rate of new star formation, estimated to be two to three times greater than that of the Milky Way.

Nearly 30% of this star formation is happening near the galaxy's nucleus in what is called a starburst region, as revealed in colorful emissions shown in the new image.

The observations have given information on a wide range of properties such as the motion, age and chemical composition of stars and the movement of interstellar gas, an important component of any galaxy.

"Since the light from stars is typically bluer if the stars are young or redder if the stars are old, having thousands of colors lets us learn a lot about what stars and populations of stars exist in the galaxy," said astronomer Kathryn Kreckel of Heidelberg University in Germany, a study co-author.

"Similarly for the gas, it glows in specific bright emission lines at very specific colors, and tells us about the different elements that exist in the gas, and what is causing it to glow," Kreckel said.

The initial research being published from the observations involves planetary nebulae, which are luminous clouds of gas and dust expelled by certain dying stars. Despite their name, they have nothing to do with planets. These nebulae can help astronomers measure the precise distances of faraway galaxies.

The researchers marveled at the scientific and aesthetic value of the new view of Sculptor.

"I personally find these images amazing," Congiu said. "What amazes me the most is that every time I look at them, I notice something new - another nebula, a splash of unexpected color or some subtle structure that hints at the incredible physics behind it all."