Word: atomically
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...reason for concern is that without ozone, life on earth would be impossible. Ozone is oxygen but in an unusual form. Most oxygen comes in two- atom molecules, but external energy -- in this case, the sun's ultraviolet radiation -- can split some of them apart. The single oxygen atoms tend to attach themselves to the remaining molecules, forming an oxygen-atom triplet. The result: a layer, from six to 30 miles up, of ozone-enriched air. Once formed, an ozone molecule is a good absorber of ultraviolet. But when CFCs rise to the ozone layer, sunlight decomposes them, releasing...
McCloy began as a poor boy from Philadelphia and rose to head the World Bank. He was a master at bringing consensus out of chaos, sometimes with grim results. The decision not to warn Japan about the atom bomb, for example, was made without a full discussion of the consequences. McCloy, then Assistant Secretary of War, shaped a vague "declaration" to Japan that was agreeable to other U.S. officials but that did nothing to avert the use of the Bomb. Bohlen, a career man in the Foreign Service, was instrumental in getting the views of his lifelong friend and fellow...
...successor, James Bryant Conant, was a chemist of somewhat more talent than Eliot, and he was to play an important part in the development of the atom bomb. He led Harvard through World War II, when the Yard swarmed with more soldiery than it had seen since the Revolutionary War. When it subsequently swarmed with veterans, Conant introduced the influential "general education" program that required all students to take survey courses in the humanities, sciences and social sciences...
...more space shuttle will not meet the challenge. For the moment, America has lost its nerve and its vision from the top down. What we do in space now is just as important as the Panama Canal, the atom bomb, the cure for polio, the trip to the moon. The most frightening deficit is in boldness...
...1950s and the American government has started shipping its top scientists to the middle of the Nevada desert to test the Atom bomb. But Rose, the narrator who lives in Las Vegas, which lies close to the testing site, is touched only peripherally by the newcomers. She spends most of her time worrying about her turbulent relationship with her step-father and whether she will win the county spelling...