Word: nitrogen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Adenine is an undistinguished-looking chemical with a molecule made of two ordinary carbon-nitrogen rings. But to biochemists, it is one of the keys of life. It takes part in the formation of a long list of vital substances, and it is one of the five "bases" that are built into DNA and RNA, the magic nucleic acids that control the reproduction and heredity of all living organisms. Since the first life probably appeared on earth when chemicals already dissolved in sea water formed a giant molecule that had the power to reproduce itself, it is likely that this...
...krypton for long-lasting light bulbs, and xenon for high-intensity lights such as those used at airports. Even the more common gases are moving into new fields. In the next few months a big food processor will announce that it is flash-freezing fruits and vegetables with liquid nitrogen, which locks in that on-the-vine flavor. Last week McDonnell Aircraft announced that it has ordered eight special nitrogen-cooled chambers that re-create the lonely cold and vacuum of outer space...
Medical researchers have not yet found the cause of the disease, but surgeons have succeeded in treating its symptoms. New York's Dr. Irving S. Cooper uses supercold liquid nitrogen to destroy an area of the brain that is responsible for the patient's characteristic tremors...
...rays help Dr. Cooper in locating the spot that he wants to freeze in the thalamus. But to make sure that his cannula is on target, he conducts a simple test. A small amount of liquid nitrogen is pumped to the cannula tip to cool the thalamus. Dr. Cooper asks the patient to raise his hand. If the hand stops shaking, Dr. Cooper is assured that his cannula is properly placed; more liquid nitrogen is pumped through the cannula to destroy permanently a larger area in the thalamus. Thus far, Dr. Cooper has used his technique on 1,000 patients...
...blood plasma. Projects now in the works promise a wild-green-yonder of even greater farm abundance-and, of course, threaten bigger surpluses. The department's scientists are breeding new, higher-yielding varieties of wheat; they are trying to devise ways of making grain crops and grasses add nitrogen to the soil instead of subtracting it; they are combatting the boll weevil and other crop-destroying insects by sterilizing male insects in laboratories, then releasing them in the fields to compete with other males for the available females. The U.S., says an Agriculture Department publication, is "in the foothills...