Word: atomically
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More than Records. The cryogenic temperature range begins at a chilly- 150° F. and plummets to -459.7° F., or absolute zero, the point at which all thermal motion of the atom ceases. To attain these temperatures, scientists use expansion engines that compress gases, cool them and allow them to expand again, then repeat the cycle until they liquefy and eventually solidify. As the gases approach absolute zero, a sophisticated magnetization process extracts their remaining reservoir of heat. Because there will always be slight thermal motion of the atomic particles, scientists will never actually achieve absolute zero. But last...
Closet-Size Shoe Box. Because the large currents that flow in superconductors generate the intense magnetic fields needed in atom smashers and in controlled fusion experiments, superconductors will eventually replace bulky elecromagnets in these areas. A 1-lb. superconducting magnet cooled by a 200-lb. refrigerating system and powered by a 6-volt battery can produce as intense a magnetic field as an iron-core electromagnet weighing several tons and requiring 50 kilowatts of power. Entire trains could be suspended above their roadbeds in strong magnetic fields produced by superconducting magnets, enabling them to travel more smoothly and with less...
Died. Sir John Cockcroft, 70, dean of British nuclear physicists; of a heart attack; in Cambridge, England. In 1932, Cockcroft and his research partner, E.T.S. Walton, were the first to release atomic energy by splitting the atom with proton "bullets" in a linear accelerator instead of using naturally radioactive particles, the previous technique. That breakthrough led to the development of the atom bomb anc won the partners the Nobel Prize fo Physics in 1951. By then, Sir John was director of the Harwell atomic research center, pointing Britain's nuclear capability toward peaceful applica tions, including her first nuclear...
...uranium, the heaviest element that exists naturally on earth. Gradually these "transuranium" elements disappeared, decomposing by radioactive decay into lighter and more stable elements. During the past few decades, however, at least eleven transuranium elements and their isotopes have reappeared, thanks to the ingenuity of man. In their latest atomic synthesis, nuclear physicists have produced the heaviest atom known to man, a new isotope of the element mendelevium, which itself was first artificially created...
...affluent Manhattan insurance broker, Holt's own education included Switzerland's elite Le Rosey, Phillips Exeter and Yale ('44). Once fascinated by physics as "a way of getting at the truth of things," Holt's confidence in schooling was first shaken when the atom was split. His Exeter teacher simply asked his class to pencil out of their textbooks the basic law, "Matter is neither created nor destroyed"-and all blithely did so without quiver or question. To Holt, this was clear evidence that his fellow students had no genuine interest in physics...