Word: sinton
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...minutes of work). Even if they pass strenuous physical examinations, astronomers always operate in pairs so that a helping hand is immediately available. Such precautions are not always enough. On his first night back on the mountain after a month's absence, Astronomer-in-Charge William M. Sinton got the shakes, found his speech blurring and was unable to remember the simplest facts-all because of the shortage of oxygen...
Telltale Band. Most important was proof that organic (carbon-hydrogen) compounds probably exist on Mars. Dr. William Sinton of the Smithsonian Institution started with the fact that compounds containing carbon, when joined to hydrogen, absorb infra-red radiation with a wave length of 3.46 microns. His first step was to look for this absorption band in infra-red light reflected from dry leaves, lichens and mosses, which are made almost entirely of carbon-hydrogen compounds. It showed up strongly...
...Then Dr. Sinton hitched a supersensitive infra-red detector to Harvard's 61-in. telescope and looked for the same absorption band in sunlight reflected from Mars. Many observations were necessary because of the feebleness of Martian light, but at last the band appeared. Apparently, something on Mars absorbs infra-red in the same way that earthside vegetation does. Dr. Sinton thinks his observation is strong evidence that Mars has living organisms whose bodies are made of compounds containing carbon and hydrogen...
...Einstein prediction that a ray of light bends noticeably when passing a massive body like the sun has been checked several times, according to Sinton, but never with the accuracy that should be possible this time...
Accompanying Sinton will be Owen J. Gingerich 4G, an astronomy student, and Harold Zirin, research fellow in Astronomy. "No unusual discoveries are expected," said Sinton, "but they seldom are. And then again, it might even be cloudy...