Word: hydrogenate
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...Harvard clock a thin trickle of hydrogen gas flows through an apparatus that splits its two-atom molecules into single atoms. Each of these atoms has one proton and one electron, but some of them have slightly more energy than the others because their electrons are spinning in a different way. When the atom stream shoots through a system of magnets, the low-energy atoms in it are deflected sideways while the high-energy ones converge, pass through a small hole in a 6-in. quartz bulb. The bulb is lined with paraffin which does not affect the atom...
...bulb in one second, the agitated gas gets dense enough to support a sort of chain reaction. A few atoms spontaneously lose their extra energy, which they emit in the form of photons (units) of radio microwaves about 21 cm. (8.3 in.) long. The newborn photons hit other hydrogen atoms and make them emit photons too. Then a pulse of microwaves bursts from the bulb and is gathered as high-frequency current by apparatus outside...
...that it generates, is extraordinarily "stable." That is, its frequency (of approximately 1,420,405,000 cycles per second) is expected to vary less than that of any other kind of radiation. Like all regular wave motion, it can be used to keep time. The Harvard physicists hope their hydrogen clock will measure small intervals of time with 100,000 times the accuracy that is presently possible...
Personal timekeepers (trade doubletalk for watches) do not use anything as fancy as hydrogen atoms. Since the 17th century they have depended on a delicate hairspring that keeps a balance wheel turning backward and forward at a regular rate. But last week Bulova Watch...
...this were all that they may do, there would be little excitement. But U-235 is not an ordinary commodity; only a few-pounds, perhaps less, are now required to make the detonator for a hydrogen bomb that can smash the world's biggest city. The other nuclear ingredients of such bombs, deuterium and lithium 6, are comparatively easy to come by. High skill and knowledge are needed to assemble these devices, but both can be acquired by any purposeful nation, however small...