Record: October 2023 – Scientific American

Record: October 2023 – Scientific American

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1973

Craters on Venus

“Venus is pocked with craters. This reality emerges from scientific studies in which shorter radio waves were being reflected from the stable area and were being analyzed by laptop at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It exhibits an space 910 miles throughout in the vicinity of the equator, where there are a dozen substantial craters ranging from 21 miles in diameter to 100 miles. Lesser craters may well nicely be present but ended up not solved. All the craters are shallow—a clue to Venus’ history. They could be the result of meteorite impacts in advance of the earth experienced an atmosphere. Maybe they were being subsequently loaded with lava from the interior or erosion on the area.”

Earth: Alien Zoo or Petri Dish?

“The probability is higher that humans are not just one of the most superior organisms in the universe. There may be civilizations millions of years in advance of our possess. If ‘they’ are out there, why have we not heard from them? John A. Ball, in Icarus: International Journal of Photo voltaic Technique Experiments, implies that extraterrestrial civilizations could talk with us, but they opt for not to. ‘Occasionally,’ he observes, ‘we established apart wilderness places, wildlife sanctuaries, or zoos in which other species are permitted to produce naturally.’ An extraterrestrial species, he speculates, may well consider human beings an organism to be preserved in isolation and purity, a element of nature to be noticed. ‘They have established apart the location in which we live as a zoo.’ F.H.C. Crick and L. E. Orgel, also producing in Icarus, offer an different idea: that lifetime on the earth started as a deliberate ‘infection’ of microorganisms put below by a different civilization. This sort of a civilization would have regarded the earth not as a zoo but as a Petri dish.”

1923

Sunburned Eyes

“The massive arc lamps used in the going-image studio, just like the sun, give out extremely-violet as properly as noticeable gentle. Arms and experience get quickly accustomed to this, and immune to further burning. But the eyeball is extremely sensitive to burning, and it does not get immunity. The burning is a sort of conjunctivitis. It is curable, but during the get rid of the client should not be further exposed, and the eye is weakened by having been troubled. This illness seems so freely between motion-picture actors that a title, ‘Kleig eyes,’ has been coined for it [after the Kleig light, a carbon arc-lamp]. It seems that the solution lies in a movie that would perform as proficiently and as quickly in a subdued mild as the existing movies get the job done in the glare.”

Coast to Coastline in 27 Hours

“Lieutenants John A. Macready and Oakley G. Kelly of the Army Air Services, leaving Roosevelt Discipline on Extensive Island, arrived at Rockwell Industry in San Diego following a nonstop flight of 26 hrs 50 minutes. According to the pilots the common velocity was 93.5 miles for every hour. In the original phases the plane was tremendously overloaded [with fuel], and an altitude of only 1,500 feet could be taken care of. From Indianapolis to Tucumcari in New Mexico they flew [in the dark] by compass by itself. A single hundred thousand people today welcomed the pilots at San Diego. The pilots came down in fantastic problem, though neither experienced slept the whole excursion. They point out they would have welcomed indicators marking towns and other landmarks, specially by night.”

1873

Oil by Pipeline

“Transporting oil by pipes has been in follow in the oil districts of Pennsylvania for numerous decades. It remains to be decided no matter if the project can be carried out on a gigantic scale. With the discoveries in Butler County, Pa., the concept of transporting oil as a result of iron pipes, from Titusville in excess of the Alleghenies to Philadelphia, a length of 260 miles, is now exciting considerable consideration. It is proposed to lay a solid iron six-inch pipe, in a bee line, which at one locality will be 3,000 toes previously mentioned the sea stage. Some 23,000 barrels may be delivered every 20-four hrs, at ten cents for every barrel.”

Perpetual Movement For Sale

“J.W.S. writes to say that he has a perpetual movement [machine] in functioning buy, and he will dispose of it for $2,000,000, but if he has to carry it to Washington, he will check with $5,000,000. The existing economic disaster will, we panic, protect against our correspondent from acquiring possibly of the sums he mentions.”

Covers of Scientific American from 1973, 1923 and 1873.

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