Word: chemist
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...dream of extraterrestrial life was stimulated earlier this summer by preliminary interpretations of data sent back from Mars by the twin Mariner probes. Hurriedly examining the readings from his infrared spectrometer on board Mariner 7, Chemist George C. Pimental had dramatically announced that the Martian atmosphere probably contained traces of ammonia and methane, two gases produced on earth by bacterial decay. The implication was clear: there might well be micro-organisms on Mars...
...lunar samples brought back by the Apollo 11 astronauts turned out to be igneous or heat-formed rock, possibly of volcanic origin. Long a champion of a "cold" moon-the theory that it has never had a molten core like the earth's-the University of California chemist sadly admitted that he could have been wrong. The moon, he conceded in the face of the rocks, might be hot, or geologically active, after all. "Poor old fellow," said one of NASA's younger geologists several weeks ago, "his ideas are impossibly wrong...
...RATTLE OF A SIMPLE MAN, a comedy about a middle-aged chemist who finds a measure of happiness with an imaginative prostitute, is the feature at the Hutchinson Theater in Raymond...
What the scientists were unable to detect conclusively was any sign of life. One chemist placed samples of lunar dust and rock chips under a 300,000-power microscope and found no evidence of lunar organisms, either living or fossilized. Another chemist did detect a trace of carbon, an element essential to life. But it was mainly volatile hydrocarbons that are familiar ingredients of lubricating oil; they might well have come from tools, or from the cabinets in which the samples had been placed...
...infra-red spectrometer on board Mariner 7, the second of the two vehicles that flew past Mars, detected two gases-ammonia and methane-that could indicate the presence of primitive life. Both are produced on earth by biological decay. George C. Pimentel, a University of California chemist, said that he was unable to determine the amount of ammonia in the Martian atmosphere, but he estimated the concentration of methane as "no more than a few parts per million." In the earth's atmosphere, the amount is about 1.5 p.p.m.-and added rather jovially that among the terrestrial sources...