Word: xenon
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Nearly two hours later, Viking signaled that a xenon lamp, which simulates Martian sunlight in one of the biology experiments, had turned on. This confirmed that the arm had delivered soil to the laboratory and that the biology experiments had started. The first experiment-a search for evidence of the life process called photosynthesis-was under way. The photosynthesis experiment, plus the two that showed the unexpectedly early results, will take twelve days to complete. Furthermore, the tests will have to be repeated before Viking biologists can draw any firm conclusions about the existence of life in the particular soil...
...presence of oxygen was detected by the pyrolytic release experiment which was designed to test for the occurence of photosynthesis by exposing a soil sample to radiation from a xenon lamp. The oxygen was produced before the lamp was switched...
...housed in 1-ft. cubes and weigh only 30 lbs. apiece. Each is crammed with 140,000 electronic components-including 122,000 transistors-40 thermostats, three tiny ovens, bottled radioactive gases, one pocket-sized chromatograph (used to identify the chemical component of the substance under study) and a small xenon lamp that can simulate sunshine. Costing $16.9 million each, the labs can perform three different life-detection experiments without any human help...
...these chemicals. In another test, soil will be exposed to a nutrient containing radioactive carbon 14. If any microorganisms consume the nutrient and give off carbon-bearing gases as metabolic wastes, those wastes will be radioactively "tagged" and readily identified. Lastly, a Martian soil sample will be exposed to xenon "sunlight" and a simulated Martian atmosphere of radioactive carbon dioxide and water traces. After five days, the atmosphere will be purged, and the sample will be baked to more than 1000° F. If vapors given off include any carbon 14, the scientists will be able to conclude that...
Amid the crack of 450-volt xenon strobes, the silent zap of lasers and an unprecedented clicking of turnstiles, the Los Angeles County Museum's exhibition called "Art and Technology" is under way at last. It will run through August, and it affords a revealing spectacle of the stimuli and problems that rise out of a major encounter of art and industry...