Word: atomics
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...nuclear age dawned in the wrong place, at the wrong time. In 1938, outside Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, Nazis paraded in the streets. Inside, German Chemist Otto Hahn patiently probed the secrets of the atom. He repeated an experiment that had been tried by half a dozen researchers, including Enrico Fermi in Rome and Irene Joliot-Curie in Paris...
...farther back for a causative scientific theory, one must not be so shortsighted as to focus on 1917. The actual origin of the theory that made the laser possible must be credited to the Greek scientists Leucippus (fl. 5th century B.C.) and Democritus (460-370 B.C.), who originated the atomic theory and also coined the word atom (Greek for not + cutting, indivisible...
...resulting treaty, worked out in Geneva, commits the signing nations (60-odd, so far) to the historic agreement. Nations without nuclear weapons will not produce or receive them in the future from the present nuclear powers. The pact also promises have-nots the full peaceful benefits of the atom, while committing the nuclear powers to move forward toward effective arms limitation and disarmament. France and Red China refused to sign the treaty, while several nonnuclear powers, notably West Germany, India and Brazil, have objected that as signatory nations they would be left vulnerable to enemy attack...
...Einstein pointed out that an atom or molecule stimulated by an electro-magnetic wave (light, for example) would give off a basic unit of light called the photon, which would have the same wave length as the stimulating wave. A number of subsequent experiments proved Einstein correct. But not until 1958 did Physicists Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes describe a device that they thought would be able to stimulate molecules of gas confined in a cylinder until they gave off photons in an intense and powerful stream. Their device was a variation of Townes's earlier Nobel Prizewinning invention...
...After the criticism was published, he dashed off a scorching letter to Harper's-though he does not plan to answer the Center. He hotly denied that he had ever called Kennedy, one of his favorite politicians, a traitor. He said that he had never referred to the atom bomb as "Mr. Big," or advocated its use anywhere. He conceded that he had been "overoptimistic" about the "timing" of events in the Viet Nam war, and promised not to get trapped into making such predictions again. But he stuck to his guns on the progress...