Word: cosmically
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Little is definitely known about mesons, except that they are formed in large numbers in the upper atmosphere. One theory: cosmic rays hit air atoms, knock high-speed protons out of their nuclei. These hit other atomic nuclei, somehow producing mesons. Mesons live only two-millionths of a second; then they disintegrate with a burst of energy. All, or nearly all, the matter in.the meson spontaneously turns into energy. If physicists could generate mesons on a large scale, their great problem might be solved...
...only reliable meson generators are the mysterious cosmic rays from outer space, which spend most of their force inconveniently high in the atmosphere...
...Report. Luckily for the ultra-physicists, the U.S. Army, hell-bent for high-altitude guided missiles, was cooperating. Last week the Army told good news. A German V-2 rocket, roaring 100 miles above New Mexico, had carried elaborate instruments to the realm of the cosmic rays. Twenty miles up, the effect of the rays was 300 times as strong as on the earth; 20 miles higher it fell off again...
...report gave a cross section view of almost the entire atmosphere. At the top it showed the original cosmic rays, but comparatively few in number. Lower down, they had smacked into atoms, set swarming particles flying. Lower still, their effect had largely died away...
...when astronomers try to look at the center of the "home" or Milky Way galaxy to which our own sun belongs, they see practically nothing. It is comparatively near, but dark, cosmic clouds frustrate their peering telescopes, and it is estimated that less than 1/1,000 of the ordinary blue photographic light from the galaxy center gets through the obscuring interstellar dust...