Word: nitrogen
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...exotic organism living humbly in the soil might starve native plants by turning some vital nutrient, such as nitrogen, into a form they cannot use. If the earth's plants die of starvation, its animals, including man, will...
Syncom I, the Hughes-built oldest brother of Early Bird, reached its orbit in 1963, but an exploding tank of high-pressure nitrogen kept it from succeeding electronically. Syncom II and III, used by the Department of Defense, were successful, but their performance has been kept partially secret. Early Bird, the fourth of the series, was built and launched for Comsat, the private company that was created by Congress to set up a commercial communication-satellite system. In the Syncom family, Early Bird was the big, public success...
Surgeons listened in wonderment when Dr. Irving S. Cooper first described his "ice scalpel" and a new way to shoot liquid nitrogen through the brain to freeze part of the thalamus as a treatment for Parkinson's disease (TIME, July 6, 1962). Now, Dr. Cooper's cold is surgery's hottest technique - a tool for treating a dozen or more conditions in all parts of the body...
Called cryosurgery, from the Greek kryos (cold or frost), the new method actually involves neither ice nor scalpel. The surgeon inserts a thin cannula (tube) that kills offending tissue with liquid nitrogen's intense cold (- 196° C., or 321° below zero F.). Usually no tissue is actually removed, and the body's natural clean-up system removes the debris. Virtually bloodless and almost painless, cryosurgery can be done on patients who remain fully conscious or only lightly anesthetized. In some cases cryosurgery is used only to relieve symptoms, but in others it achieves actual cures. Among...
...Cahan at Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center involved a cancer of the tongue, 2 in. by 1¼ in., in an 84-year-old man. After only a mouthwash sort of anesthesia, Dr. Cahan froze the surface of the cancer. Later he inserted the liquid nitrogen probe deep into the tissue. In each of three required operations, the tissues were frozen and allowed to thaw. The patient complained of only a mild burning sensation that lasted a few hours after each treatment. In three weeks, the cancer shrank to the size of a small...