Word: coppers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...accessible to the humblest . . . book reviewer as I am to my immediate entourage." That is how Lord Copper, proprietor of the London Daily Beast, saw the hierarchy of the press in Evelyn Waugh's Scoop. A half-century later, Charles Simmons may have trouble getting past the lowliest editorial assistant at the New York Times Book Review, where he spent 33 years as an editor. His latest novel, which caused a few clucks when it was excerpted pseudonymously in the Nation and the New Republic, is a farce about office politics at a Manhattan literary magazine...
...hundredth of the current capacity of conventional superconductors. And because the amount of current flowing through the magnetic field determines its strength, scientists are concerned that a quick fix may not be in sight. Warns GE's Robb: "What we need now is a second invention that would modify copper oxides to allow high currents to flow at high temperatures. There's a fifty-fifty chance that second invention will ever be made...
Take the transmission of electricity, for example. As much as 20% of the energy sent through high-tension lines is now lost in the form of heat generated as the current encounters resistance in the copper wire. If the electricity could be sent through superconducting cable, however, not a kilowatt-second of energy would be lost, thus saving the utilities, and presumably consumers, billions of dollars. Furthermore, at least in theory, all of a large city's electrical energy needs could be supplied through a handful of underground cables...
Muller and his colleague, Johannes Georg Bednorz, tinkered with hundreds of different oxide compounds over the next few years, varying quantities and ingredients like alchemists in search of the philosopher's stone. Finally, in December 1985, they came across a compound of barium, lanthanum, copper and oxygen that seemed promising. When Bednorz tested the compound, he was startled to see signs of super-conductivity at an unprecedented 35 K, by far the highest temperature at which anyone had observed the phenomenon. Could this result be correct? Aware of some hastily made superconductivity claims that later could not be reproduced...
...bugs in the building will ever be found. To do so might require conducting what one expert calls a "destructive search" -- which means nothing less than tearing the building apart. But some optimists believe that at least some rooms can be made secure, mostly by shielding them in copper, lead or other materials that foil electromagnetic emissions...