Word: hydrogenate
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...lines described by Alvarez were photographs taken of a "bubble chamber" filled with liquid hydrogen in which high-speed particles made trails of tiny bubbles. When the chamber was bombarded by extremely powerful particles from the Berkeley bevatron, some of the tracks looked as if they were made by mu mesons, which are knocked out of the hearts of smashed atoms. A few of these tracks were peculiar; they had gaps in them that puzzled the scientists...
...Mesic" Atoms. Closer study showed that the mu mesons, which have negative electric charges, had attached themselves to positive hydrogen nuclei and were revolving around them as electrons normally do. Since mu mesons are 210 times heavier than electrons, the laws that govern the internal affairs of atoms force them to revolve at only 1/210th of the distance of electrons. The "mesic" atom formed in this way is somewhat heavier than an ordinary hydrogen atom but extremely small. It can therefore sift through the electron defenses of ordinary atoms and fuse with their nuclei...
This is what was happening in the bubble chamber. Mesons were forming mesic atoms with the nuclei of heavy hydrogen (deuterium), which they prefer to ordinary hydrogen. A meson so occupied makes no bubbles, and this accounted for the gaps in the meson tracks. But when a mesic deuterium atom hits an atom of ordinary hydrogen, the nuclei fuse together, forming an atom of helium 3 and releasing 5.4 million electron-volts of energy. The meson shoots off, carrying the energy as velocity, and is none the worse for its experience. It may form another mesic atom and cause...
Original Soup. Best theory of how life began assumes that the earth once had a "reducing" atmosphere of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water, as the outer planets have now. Solar radiation and lightning, according to the theory, turned this mixture into organic molecules which gradually grew complex enough to form replicas of themselves. Such reproducing molecules, however simple, are alive...
When the guided missile whistled into everyday military planning, the brainy brass of the U.S. Army whistled in low alarm. If nations were going to fight wars by trading off hydrogen payloads, then the Army was going to have a hard time justifying a budget for a 1,500,000-man ground force and the armament that goes with it. The Army's answer was to lobby hard-on contradictory lines: 1) the world will probably succumb to an atomic stalemate, hence the U.S. will need a conventional army which for maximum efficiency will need...