Word: atomics
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Modern physics, proprietor of the atom, may be running out of worlds to conquer. In the current Physics Today, Physicist George Gamow explains that physics is still delving deep into mysteries, but may wind up its unfinished business as soon as it figures out the relationships between four basic values. Then, says Gamow: "We will be able to say that physical science has reached its end . . . and that all that remains is ... minor details . . . and adoration of the completed system. At that stage, physical science will enter from the epoch of Columbus and Magellan into the epoch of the National...
Some sentimentalists may be sorry to see the earth discarded as a timekeeper. But there are consolations. If the world's official time is kept by the atom clock, the length of the day, in atomic hours, will increase as the motion of the earth slows down. Eventually man will enjoy a 25-hour day. This will happen, according to some calculations, in about 1,800,000 centuries...
...America's own U.S. military machine, Forrestal said it badly needed cranking up. True, the U.S. did hold a "fair margin of superiority" on virtually every technical weapon. But even the atom bomb was neither sufficient to prevent attack, nor enough to insure victory after attack. Any war would require the best combined efforts of the Army, Navy and Air Force. And Jim Forrestal reported frankly that, after 15 months of "unification," they were a long way from being unified...
Problems of Management. Under Dr. Pitzer's control will come the chain of laboratories which the AEC is building throughout the country. Much of his work will be top-secret, concerned with atom bombs and other nuclear weapons. An even greater responsibility of Pitzer's will be to make the atom serve-as well as threaten-civilization...
...cyclotron, man's first atom-smasher, is apparently most dangerous when it is just starting its first magnetic merry-go-round and still needs adjusting. The deadly neutrons give no warning; there is no sensation of light, heat or pressure; the effect may not be felt for years. But the neutrons can cause cataracts much like those that sometimes form with old age. One difference is that cyclotron cataracts are on the back of the lens...