Word: atom
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...most important question for physics to answer is: What is matter made of? A glass of water or a chinch bug or a copper coin is composed of molecules. The molecules are built of atoms. Twenty years ago the ancient Greek notion persisted that atoms were indivisible. Then Ernest Rutherford of England split nitrogen atoms with atomic bullets from radium. Seven years ago physicists were willing to analyze all the matter in the universe in terms of two parts of the atom: protons and electrons...
...pigment from the blood of mollusks. He and his co-workers at the University of Upsala bombarded the hemocyanin particles with quanta of energy in the form of ultraviolet light. Certain wave lengths of the bombarding radiation split the blood pigment molecules into halves. This was like splitting inorganic atoms in a high-voltage atom-smasher...
Jovial young Physicist Ernest Orlando Lawrence has an 85-ton atom smasher at Berkeley, Calif. Intrigued by the Lawrence cyclotron, promoters of the Golden Gate International Exposition asked if they could borrow it to smash atoms for next year's fair. Physicist Lawrence, who was deep in experimentation, pointed to the protective wall of six-foot-high water tanks surrounding the cyclotron, explained that neutrons flying free as hail around an exhibition room might settle in the tissues of spectators, even render them sterile. The exposition officials hastily retired, and last fortnight they hatched plans to exhibit a model...
...Slow neutrons," by one of those paradoxes which are common in atomic physics, make better bullets than fast neutrons for creating artificially radioactive substances. Having no electrical resistance to fight against, a slow neutron simply sidles up to an atom and "falls" into the nucleus-much as a slowly rolling golf ball drops into the cup whereas a faster one may roll by. Capture of a neutron makes an overweight, unstable atom which spits out particles or radiation or both. Fermi's slow neutrons have induced this kind of radioactivity in more than 40 elements...
Born in Rome 37 years ago, Enrico Fermi was introduced to the atom at the University of Pisa, continued his acquaintance with it at Göttingen and Leyden, joined the University of Rome faculty in 1927. Short, wiry, dapper and cheerful, he has visited the U. S. several times, speaks heavily accented English, likes skiing, tennis. Some time ago Benito Mussolini, who is not insensitive to the prestige of Italian science, saw to it that Fermi got a fine new laboratory...