Word: sunlight
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...longa, vita brevis to the contrary, most "immortal" paintings are all too perishable. Oil paintings in particular suffer from uneven temperatures, direct sunlight, or smog. Some of the finest works of Rembrandt, a meticulous craftsman, have darkened and yellowed after three centuries; several Van Gogh canvases are in danger of disintegration after only 75 or 80 years. As for abstract expressionist paintings, which are characteristically encrusted with heavy, hastily applied impastos-often by artists who are relatively untutored in the complexities of oil technique-museums find that they should be periodically turned upside down so that errant paint will ooze...
...gouache and oils. Matte and gloss media are available to impart every kind of surface finish, from chalky pastels and flat tempera to buttery oil glazes. Plastics can be thickened to print graphics or molded into free-standing sculpture. Moreover, under laboratory tests equivalent to 45 years of direct sunlight, the new paints have proved virtually fadeproof. Indeed, like every other technical innovation in the history of painting, the synthetics may well lead artists to explore, experiment and discover new forms and techniques as enduring as the paints themselves...
Ranger was preparing itself for its long voyage. Its computer brain came to life and began issuing orders. It spread its purple wings so their silicon cells could make electricity out of sunlight. Its dish antenna unfolded; its tiny eyes (sensors) commanded tiny gas jets to turn the spacecraft so that they could bear on the sun and the earth. Its radios chattered furiously, sending reports that all was going well...
...MILES, Ranger's cameras show edge of the Sea of Clouds (left) with about as much detail as best pictures taken by biggest earth-based telescopes. Cross-shaped marks are reference points on the camera. Sunlight is falling from the left, casting shadows that permit measurement of elevations and depths. Areas between crater rims look smooth, but closer pictures (below) show this to be illusion. Fine spacing of TV lines gives pictures the quality of good photographs...
Viewed with the naked eye or the world's biggest telescope, the moon looks flat. Because of its great distance, the sharpest irregularities on its surface show only because of the shadows that they cast in slanting sunlight. But the moon is more rugged than Afghanistan; when earthly astronauts land there, they will need the best possible contour maps to guide them through the precipitous mountains that hide just over the lunar horizon. Last week NASA's moon pioneers were beginning to plot their first explorations, using an entirely new set of maps made by the Army Corps...