Word: langmuir
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Russian respect for the physical sciences stems from the influence of a single individual, Doty explained. "He was the great American scientist, Langmuir, who convinced leading Soviet scientists in the Thirties that, if they did basic research well, practical results would follow...
...heart attack; in Schenectady. Drafted by G.E. from M.I.T. (where he developed the now accepted electrochemical theory of corrosion), Researcher Whitney set up the country's first industrial-research lab in a Schenectady barn, spurred on an alert crew of scientists (including William D. Coolidge, Irving Langmuir) to develop the modern electric-light bulb and turn out a wide assortment of major electronic discoveries...
Died. Irving Langmuir, 76, first U.S. industrial chemist to win (1932) the Nobel Prize, prolific experimenter in what he called the "borderland of chemistry and physics," a "pure research" staffer at General Electric Co.'s research lab for 41 years, and a pioneer rainmaker; of a coronary thrombosis; in Falmouth, Mass. Langmuir once said: "Whatever work I've done, I've done for the fun of it." His fun included such breakthrough inventions as the gas-filled light bulb and the high-vacuum power tube (the heart of modern radio and TV broadcasting...
...Million Shots. Vaccines of the general type developed by Dr. Salk have been widely used only in the U.S., Canada, Denmark, Australia and Israel. Noting 1956's 50% drop in polio in the U.S., the U.S. Public Health Service's Dr. Alexander Langmuir saw increasingly good results ahead: "With increasing immunization of the population under 40, a steady reduction in paralytic cases can be confidently anticipated." Denmark, long hard-hit by polio, had the brightest progress report: 99% of children up to the age of nine and 90% of all Danes aged ten to 40 have had shots...
Historically, the critics are right. The technological advances of the past century have stemmed from uncommitted experimentation. As G.E.'s Nobel Prizewinning Irving Langmuir points out: "Only a small part of scientific progress has resulted from a planned search for specific objectives. A much more important part has been made possible by the freedom of the scientist to follow his own curiosity in search of truth...