Word: hydrogen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...nitrate is a salt, a combination of a base and an acid. But it is far from peaceful, as most other salts are. Instead of having a metal (e.g., sodium or iron) as the basic part of its molecule, it has an ammonium "radical" (one nitrogen atom and four hydrogen atoms) masquerading as a metal. Its acid part is also a radical: one nitrogen and three oxygen atoms (see chart...
Ammonium nitrate's outwardly peaceful molecule perpetually strains with suppressed desires. The oxygen and hydrogen atoms are not combined with each other, as their natures prompt them to be. They fret in frustrated juxtaposition, kept from an explosive embrace by a frangible barrier of chemical propriety...
Most experts agree that petroleum was formed from organic remains which accumulated on the sea floor. The mystery: How was it done? Almost all organic substances contain oxygen, while petroleum is largely hydrocarbons, compounds of carbon and hydrogen only. Chemists have been unable to decide how the oxygen was eliminated. Some thought that deep-down bacteria did it (TIME, Dec. 17, 1945), but others politely said...
Cyclotron. For high-powered work, the cyclotron has had a basic flaw: at very high speeds it runs head on into relativity. In a cyclotron, nuclear bullets (such as deuterons-the nucleus of the heavy hydrogen atom) are whirled around in a drum divided across the middle, like a halved round cheese. Each time a bullet crosses the gap between the drum halves, it gets an electrical kick, increasing its speed. Because of the bullet's great speed (it circles the drum in millionths of a second), accurate timing of the kick is all-important. But as the bullet...
This discovery has some immediate applications. Blond, bushy-browed Walter H. Zinn, the discoverer, who looks like a happy Mephistopheles, thinks that neutrons can probably be used like X rays to examine the structure of molecules. Neutrons are light enough to be scattered by hydrogen atoms, which X rays do not detect; hence they can be used to study organic molecules, such as viruses, which mark the difference between living and inanimate matter...