Word: atomic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...other formidable problems in communicating with an alien race. At what frequency would a civilization listen for and transmit messages? Many scientists have proposed the 21-cm. band, which is the wave length of emissions from the hydrogen atom, the most abundant element in the universe. Another hurdle might well be the choice of a language that would be universally understood by intelligent beings (see diagram, page 56). Also, because man has so recently entered a technological state, any civilization capable of receiving earthly signs might be far more sophisticated. Would it bother to reply? Possibly not, according to Sagan...
...Oliver composed a sample universal message that could conceivably have been sent from some distant planet. The information would be contained in a series of irregularly spaced pulses picked up by radio telescopes tuned to a wave length of 21 cm. (the natural frequency of radiation from a hydrogen atom and an obvious choice of an advanced civilization). Translated into print, the message would consist of an apparently meaningless sequence of 1,271 ones (for pulses) and zeros (for gaps between the pulses...
...state of nuclear physics at the outset of World War II. At that time a group of scientists informed the President that they knew, not how to build a bomb, but how to go about finding out how to build a bomb. The parallel is striking. The atom bomb taught us that all science is not necessarily good, that new techniques that are not necessarily better than old techniques, that knowledge is at best morally neutral, not always right...
Einstein's prediction has since been backed by indirect experimental evidence. The existence of short-lived sub-atomic particles, for example, seems to be extended when they are speeded up in atom smashers. But there has never been a satisfactory test of the prediction with a clock actually traveling through space. To conduct that test, Hafele, a physicist at Washington University in St. Louis, persuaded the U.S. Naval Observatory to lend him four extremely accurate atomic clocks, each valued at $17,000 and weighing 60 lbs. In addition, the Navy agreed to foot the bill...
...mammoth machine is one of the most complex ever devised by man. But before the National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, III., goes into operation, the world's largest atom smasher is getting some vital help from one of the smallest workers available: a friendly, 15-in.-long ferret named Felicia...