50 Years Ago
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Russians Dig to Reach Below Earth’s Crust
During the space race, U.S. and Soviet teams also engaged in a less-famous contest — to drill down to the boundary between the Earth’s crust and mantle.
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Science Past from the issue of July 29, 1961
RADIATION SURVIVORS — A world-wide radiation disaster might eventually give rise to two populations, research on bacteria indicates.… Starting with a culture of ordinary (wild-type) bacteria, the scientist added copper ions that produced a “disaster.” Most of the bacteria died…. But as time passed, a small number of survivors, called variants, began reproducing at a rapid […]
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Men to Mars Possible in 60’s, Experts Say
Experts had forecast that astronauts would walk on Mars by 1970, but such a feat is still 20-plus years out.
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Science Past from the issue of July 15, 1961
CERAMICS PROVED BEST FOR POWER GENERATORS — Ceramics have proved to be the best material for checking the white-hot stream of gases in a new kind of electric power generators. Westinghouse Electric Corporation scientists, Pittsburgh, Pa., believe ceramics will be superior to iron and steel for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) electric power generators. They found that ceramics, […]
- Paleontology
Dinosaurs died of rickets
After more than 80 years, a theory that too little vitamin D led to the demise of the dinos still awaits a shred of evidence.
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From the Archive: Carp eat other fish out
History repeats with another round of carp invasion.
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Science Past from the issue of July 1, 1961
WINTERGREEN VS. ALMOND IN ODOR PENETRATION TEST — Different chemicals produce different odors because vibrations within the molecules are different. This is the theory of Dr. R.H. Wright of the British Columbia Research Council in Vancouver, Canada. He compared nitrobenzene, which has an almond smell, and methyl salicylate, which smells like wintergreen. Both these substances […]
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Science Past from the issue of June 17, 1961
LONG-RANGE SYSTEM FOR SPOTTING SUBMARINES — A sonar system for detecting and tracking enemy submarines long before they reach United States shores is being developed by the U.S. Navy.… The sound transmitter, or transducer, which is five stories high and weighs hundreds of tons, will be carried on a former Navy tanker, the USNS Mission […]
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Freon: Destroying the ozone layer?
Scientists discovered in the 1970s that chlorofluorocarbons such as Freon were hurting Earth’s ozone layer.
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From the Archive
In the late 1950s, roughly half the astronomers who voted on whether the universe began with a Big Bang said “No.”
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Science Past from the issue of June 3, 1961
ATOMIC ENERGY SEEN BEST FOR ROCKET POWER — Atomic energy is the most feasible source for powering rockets into the far reaches of outer space. A refined model of a nuclear power system now being developed could be used to propel space probes to Mars and Venus, [said] Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, chairman of the […]
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Science Past from the issue of May 20, 1961
U.S. SPACEMAN A-OKAY — The United States broke the space barrier May 5 when Alan B. Shepard, Jr., 37-year-old astronaut, rode the Mercury capsule 302 miles down-range from Cape Canaveral, Fla. At 9:34 a.m. EST the Redstone rocket carrying the Mercury capsule lifted off the launching pad and took the astronaut for a 15-minute trip […]
