Word: hydrogen
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...from Hungary, Edward Teller was part of the group of physicists who persuaded Albert Einstein to draft his famous 1939 letter advising F.D.R. that a nuclear bomb could be designed. Teller went on to help develop it and, in the 1950s, win universal recognition as the "father of the hydrogen bomb." Now, gray and limping at 75 but booming out sharply worded opinions in a voice as powerful and confident as ever, Teller is one of the advisers who convinced Reagan that a missile-killing system based on laser-and particle-beam technology is feasible...
...Soviet hydrogen weapons and Sputnik foreshadowed a kind of stalemate. Once general nuclear war threatened both sides with tens of millions of casualties, the very existence of nuclear arsenals came to be perceived by many as a menace. Traditional wars had been sustained by the conviction that the consequences of defeat or surrender were worse than the costs of resistance. The nuclear specter banished that conviction. Fewer and fewer objectives seemed worth the cost or the risk...
...letter to President Reagan, Allan M. Maxam of the Medical School's Dana Farber Cancer Institute explained that the films "are about destructive agents-hydrogen bombs and acidic rain-that could kill trillions of living organism. We assert that the Canadian films are statements of this profound concern and as such can not be propaganda...
...seepage was traced to a ¾-in.-long crack in the engine's manifold, where hydrogen and oxygen come together under extremely high temperatures and pressures. That crack was the result of an inadequately hardened weld ordered up to repair some damage sustained during manufacture. But when the No. 1 engine was removed, its replacement also showed signs of leakage. This time oxygen was pouring out of a heat exchanger, a situation that might have triggered an explosion and fire...
Alarmed NASA technicians then investigated Challenger's other engines. On Feb. 25 they found a hydrogen leak in the No. 2 engine. A day or so later, the same kind of leak turned up in the No. 3 engine. Faced with this mounting crisis on the eve of a launch, Abrahamson rushed out to the pad, clambered up the launch tower and personally inspected the inner plumbing of the engines. It became clear that NASA's original fix had only exacerbated the problem: instead of preventing chafing during the vibrations at full power, the brazing and extra sleeves...