Word: hydrogen
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...planet by two tests: 1) "How big is its body?" 2) "How hot is its surface?" (A stable planet must be smaller than its star, cool enough so that it shines only by reflected light.) From calculations based on the body's known mass* and probable compositions (mainly hydrogen and helium), Russell concludes that 1) its diameter is perhaps 216,000 miles, or 40% that of its star-"big for a planet, but passable"; 2) its surface temperature is probably somewhere between 50 and minus 168 degrees Centigrade (122 to minus 272 degrees Fahrenheit...
...there has been plenty of hell but little production around Permanente. Hundreds of construction workers jostled with hundreds of production employes trying to handle highly explosive magnesium dust. Once a conveyor pipe broke and caused an explosion which killed a few workers; again careless builders hooked on to a hydrogen line instead of an air hose, blew themselves skyhigh. Atop everything else, the newly designed three-story electric furnaces were constantly on the blink because the terrific heat (4,000° F.) melted vital parts...
...catalyst is an innocent chemical bystander whose mere presence on the scene promotes or hastens an activity in which the catalyst itself is not involved. Common example: vegetable oils are solidified with hydrogen, in the presence of nickel as a catalyst, to make kitchen shortening...
...when four hydrogen atoms are combined into one helium atom, as is possible at the sun's center temperature of 20,000,000° Centigrade, there is a loss of 0.0286 units of atomic weight. It is this mass which is converted into energy, according to Einstein's relativity formulas. On this principle, for each gram of the sun's hydrogen there would be about 55,000 kilowatt hours of available energy...
...formation of helium from hydrogen is theoretical. It has not been done in the laboratory. It is also complex, involves six steps in which carbon atoms participate but are finally released unchanged. But it is the only theory which accounts for the sun. Further, it accounts for the energy of all the stars except the relatively cool "red giants." A star, in keeping with Bethe's theories on the sun, apparently gets hotter and brighter, "behaves very foolishly" toward the end, uses up the last of its fuel supply in a burst of glory and a "brilliant death...