Word: thermonuclear
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Since the March 1954 thermonuclear test explosion in the Marshall Islands, the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory at San Francisco has been checking the radioactivity of animals, plants, materials, etc., in the vicinity of the crater. In Science, Herbert W. Weiss and William H. Shipman tell what they found when they checked the flesh of two giant "killer" clams (Tridacna gigas) collected last year from the shore of Rongelap atoll, 150 miles away from the South Pacific test site...
...missile and an "inhabited" spaceship or satellite. But the missiles, nevertheless, are excellent instruments of approach. Their rocket motors, thin-skinned tanks, delicate guidance systems, etc. can also be used for hitting the moon with a charge of flash powder. This is considered less difficult than boosting a heavy thermonuclear warhead-to a city-sized target 5,000 miles away, and some Air Force groups think that it would be worth doing as a demonstration of U.S. spacemanship. It is probable, however, that space flight will develop through halfway points other than moon shooting for propaganda...
...daily press reports have indicated that radioactive strontium 90 from the fallout of thermonuclear explosions is nothing to worry about. Japanese scientists do not agree. On April 8 scientists working under Japan's Atomic Energy Commission will present a report to the United Nations Radiation Committee. Its gist: strontium 90 should be studied carefully, and much more must be known about it before it can be written off as harmless to the human species...
...Neumann played a vital part in the wartime atom-bomb project. After the war he continued to advise the Government on high-level scientific problems, including thermonuclear weapons and guided missiles. In 1955 he became a member of the Atomic Energy Commission. His advice was instrumental in convincing the Department of Defense that a high-yield thermonuclear warhead could be made light enough to be carried across an ocean by a ballistic missile of practicable size. This thermonuclear breakthrough now dominates the thinking of the U.S. (and probably of the U.S.S.R.) about strategic warfare...
...Neumann lived in an age of warlike science, but not all of his practical work was concerned with war. He made key contributions to the mathematics of giant computing machines, and although computers using his theories are essential for designing thermonuclear weapons, they also have such important peacetime functions as forecasting the weather and controlling the operation of oil refineries...