Word: tetra
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Glashow synthesized nitrogen tetra-iodide, an extremely unstable compound which explodes when anything is dropped on it, and took to soaking dollar bills in nitric acid. This turns the dollar bill into flashpaper, which burns very rapidly and leaves no ash. Glashow gave this up when it became too expensive...
...most popular detergent now in use, say Esso chemists, is TBS (tetra propylbenzene sulfonate). It forms the basis of just about every washday product on supermarket shelves-including Tide, Fab and Rinso Blue. Its complex molecule has many branches, and it contains a benzene ring of six closely bonded carbon atoms. This sort of thing is uncommon in nature, and bacteria find it unpalatable. So Esso chemists set out to make a molecule of a long, unbranched chain of carbon atoms, rather like a natural fat. That, they figured, would be something bacteria could get their teeth into, destroying...
...outbreaks of in-hospital infection) were resistant strains of the common Staphylococcus aureus, usually found in boils and infected wounds. Scene of the counterattack was London's huge Hammersmith Hospital. By late 1957 no less than 88% of Staph aureus cultures there were resistant to penicillin, 82% to tetra-cyclihe, and 70% were immune to attack by a combination of the two drugs. Then Dr. Mary Barber, 48, a topflight bedside bacteriologist, and her anti-staph team went into action...
...research): a system called "liquid heat" which combines in one unit all the heat and power needed for house heating, cooking, refrigeration and lighting. The system, regarded by engineers as one of the most exciting heating discoveries in years, uses, instead of water or steam, a chemical solution called tetra-cresyl silicate, which can be heated to 817° Fahrenheit. The Foundation hopefully believes that its concentrated, economical liquid heat may save 48% of the present cost of house utilities...
Such X-ray mutations have formerly been of interest chiefly to geneticists (TIME, April 14), but the two unusual calendulas caught the eye of David Burpee, astute Philadelphia seedsman, who two years ago introduced a tetra-marigold produced with colchicine, a chromosome-multiplying chemical. Seven years of reselection (with no further irradiation) assured the permanency of the new strains, readied them this year for Burpee's market...