Word: physicist
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...astronomers, remote galaxies are cosmic Rosetta stones. Because their faint glimmers of light take billions of years to reach earth, these galaxies -- conglomerations of stars, dust, gas and, perhaps, planets -- offer a unique glimpse far back into time and provide clues to the age of the universe. As Physicist Stephen Hawking has observed: "When we look at the universe, we are seeing it as it was in the past." In those galactic outer reaches, too, lies hidden the answer to a tantalizing mystery: How soon after the cataclysmic fireball of the big bang, from which the universe presumably emerged...
...Force gravity study were even interpreted by some scientists as evidence of a "sixth force." But if the existence of an additional force was proved, scientists would have to readjust their calculations of gravitational force. "It's like something completely out of left field," notes Los Alamos Physicist Terry Goldman. "You don't know quite what to do with...
...Thomas, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, praises the technical precision of Ander's experiment, but cautions that measuring gravity in holes is inexact at best. He points out, for example, that an aberration in the earth's crust might have caused the unusual measurements. "What we're really talking about is the possible modification of gravity, which is the fourth force," adds Thomas. Even Ander stresses that rigorous confirmation is needed before he accepts the results of his Greenland experiment. Says he: "You keep saying to yourself, 'Gee, I've gotta be wrong -- Newton certainly...
...enthusiastic talk about a manned mission to Mars, many influential voices have been raised against it. None is more formidable than that of University of Iowa Physicist James Van Allen, the discoverer in 1958 of the earth-girdling radiation belts that today bear his name. With other scientists, he has long been critical of the shuttle, the space station and other programs that draw funds away from space science. "Any serious talk of a manned Mars mission at this time is grossly inappropriate," he says, arguing that the top priority of the U.S. should be to develop and build expendable...
...imposing as the problems of extended space flight seem, most experts are confident that humans can survive the journey to Mars. But in what shape will they be when they get there? Says NASA Physicist Wendell Mendell: "It doesn't do you much good to deliver a human to the Martian surface if that human is inert for a time after landing...