Word: vital
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...open to question. Panama owes its existence as a nation (before 1903 it was a part of Colombia) to Teddy Roosevelt's diplomacy and determination to build the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific. But the present canal is rapidly growing obsolete. The U.S. no longer considers it vital to defense in these days of missiles and two-ocean navies, is seriously considering a second canal to handle growing commercial traffic. Yet 5,600,000 tons of shipping still pass through the old locks each month. And Panama has long complained that it gets only...
LUTHER, more performance than play, is lifted by Albert Finney's acting from the vagueness of its theology to a vital concern with a man whose purpose is more obsessive than sure, but whose impact set the Reformation in motion...
...turn breaks down to acetic acid. In their experiments at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, the researchers learned that barbiturates hinder the first breakdown process and leave a lot of alcohol in the system. And alcohol has a severe depressing effect on some primitive nerves, including the vital center that regulates breathing. While different barbiturates showed varying degrees of interference, all upset the normal metabolic process to some extent...
...electronic gadgets so vital to vehicles in far-out space suffer from some far-out troubles. Cosmic radiation sickens their semiconductors. Vibrations and swift temperature changes cause fractures in all-important wires. Lubricants evaporate into the vacuum of space. But scientists are already working on some far-out cures. The latest: a tin-magnesium-aluminum alloy that can be made into wires that grow gap-bridging "whiskers" when broken and soon heal their own wounds...
...than the U.S., though it cultivates twice as much farm land, Khrushchev insists: "Yields don't depend upon the system. It's merely a matter of the U.S.'s producing more mineral fertilizer." Fertilizer, for so long the essential ingredient of barnyard humor, has become a vital factor in the economic cold war, and Khrushchev has launched a costly crash program to quadruple Russia's output of plant food...