Word: atomization
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Washington last week speeded up efforts to padlock the atom. President Truman endorsed the McMahon bill to control atomic energy. The House Naval Affairs Committee moved to make sure that even if foreign observers witness the atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll next May (see ARMY & NAVY), they will get none of its technical results. But during the week, news from four other countries showed that the atom does not stand still...
...Russia awarded a Stalin Prize to Konstantin Petrzhak and Georgi Flerov for their three-year-old "discovery of the occurence of spontaneous disintegration of uranium." Wired A.P. from Moscow: "Foreigners here have noted an air of Russian confidence regarding atomic research." Said a high Washington source: "The Soviets have been working for years on the atom. There should not be any surprise if they discover its secrets...
...German Nobel Prizewinners Otto Hahn (TIME, Jan. 21) and Werner Heisenberg said that Germany knew the secret of harnessing atomic energy in 1941. Said Heisenberg: "We were unable to apply it because of shortages of manpower and material. ... In June, 1942, we made a report on our progress to Speer [Albert Speer, Nazi munitions boss now on trial at Nürnberg]. At the same time American atom scientists made a similar report in the U.S. Then followed the great difference -America was able to start building the necessary factories. . . . Germany could not even begin work...
Besides tossing off mesons, the G.E. betatron has smashed nearly every type of atom to smithereens. The other great atom-smasher, the cyclotron, is used to shoot high-velocity particles at atoms. The betatron shoots pure energy in the form of X rays. When the X rays hit the nucleus of an atom, they act something like a red-hot poker thrust into a glass of almost-boiling water. The added energy entering the nucleus causes some of its particles to "boil off" like steam. To celebrate their triumph, the G.E. scientists were already busy last week building more & more...
...last week, added: "It has cost me so many tears, you have no idea. I should wear my birth certificate on a chain around my neck!" She is bubbling with health, and looks somewhat like a motherly Hausfrau, which she isn't. ("There's not an atom of Hausfrau in me., It's really dreadful...