I’m not super sure. If I recall correctly, we’ve known for a while that something was going on, because surface hearing alone couldn’t account for all of the water evaporating from oceans, but we couldn’t tell what. In defense of humanity here, the concept of photons interacting with something as comparably massive as molecules is kinda wild. We were caught way off guard when the photoelectric effect was announced, and that’s photons interacting with whole atoms instead of just elementary particles. The idea of the photomolecular effect is thus even wilder.
The oldest system I have would be the NES. My brother received it sometime before I was born. I’m just holding onto it for him, though - it doesn’t get played right now. I actually intend to clean it all up and retrobright it before sending it back to him… eventually… The oldest system I have that still gets occasional use would be my Gameboy Color, which I received, with Pokemon Red, for Christmas when I was 8 or 9. Unfortunately, I need to find a better plastic polish, to take some light scratches out of the lens, and until I do, it will remain disassembled… I’ve also been contemplating using the board for a complete boxypixel overhaul, but there’s something about still having my full original GBC that I’m having a problem getting over…