Word: ascent
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Puzzling Out Man's Ascent" [Nov. 7], a difficult task was accomplished well and with considerable sensitivity. There are many workers in America, Britain, France, Africa, Asia and other places who were not mentioned in the story, and I would not wish them to believe that they were forgotten. As one of the leading French anthropologists, Yves Coppens, said to me, "It is a pity we could not all be mentioned, but it is enough that the subject we are a part of has warranted the status of a TIME cover...
...cinematic sojourn into and among the stars remains the ultimate word on spedial effects, "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" notwithstanding. The opening and closing sequences of the film provide some of the most awesome footage in movie history, portraying the beginnings of man's ascent and the possible end of that progression respectively. The eery genius of the film's bookends has a way of throwing the rest of the narrative into relief, but any movie that features as original a piece of technology as HAL the computer has a lot going...
Passengers were startled by the extreme angle of ascent, which threatened to dump all their hand baggage into the rear toilet. But within 15 minutes the Concordski was level and cruising comfortably ten miles above ground, racing at twice the speed of sound toward Alma-Ata, 1,931 miles away...
Elsewhere around the world, other scientists are examining fossils, stone tools, soil and rock samples, and even pollen grains in an effort to find more of the missing pieces in the puzzle of man's ascent. They are motivated not only by curiosity and dedication to their science but also by the knowledge that what they discover may help man to understand himself. Says Leak ey in his just-published Origins (Dutton; $17.95): "By searching our long-buried past for an understanding of what we are, we may discover some insight into our future...
...days, by donkey and camel. The discomforts may be worth it; a geological survey of the area shows fossil-bearing sediments between 5 million and 9 million years old, laid down in a period that has so far yielded few clues about the ascent...