When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300°C.

The Russians used a pencil.

Har har. Oh, silly Americans! You're so silly! There's probably a fat joke to be made somewhere in here; there always is! Now, I'm not going to lie for the benefit of my glorious, adopted home. This little anecdote is mostly true. There are, however, a few important little details that the story neglects to fill you in on. Gather 'round, ladies and gentlemen: This is why we won the Cold War.

You see, every time you write with a pencil, little flecks of graphite chip off of them and do not stick to the surface that you're writing on. Fellow southpaws should be well-aquainted with this dastardly dust. Many a left hand has been stained in the wake of a good essay.

This is all good and fine on earth, where the flecks stay on the paper (or on your hand). In space, people don't have that luxury. The graphite floats about the cabin, into lungs, precision machinery, and air circulation vents. Being highly combustable, it creates a tremendous fire hazard in the pure oxygen environment of a space capsule and is generally pesky in ways far worse than any hand stain. It's just not worth the trouble. You need a pen, so the United States got one.

But it sure as hell didn't take a decade or cost $12 billion dollars to develop. Invented by Paul Fisher in 1953 and featuring a pressurized ink cartridge, its original purpose was simply to be a superior pen for writing on Earth. After years of Astronauts using pencils in space, Fisher realised that his pen would work in zero-gravity, as well as eliminate the problems caused by zero-gravity pencil use. He went to NASA to shill his creation and before long the Fisher Space Pen was put into use for all NASA missions. They're even available to the general public at www.spacepen.com.

That is all.