Word: beryllium
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Neutron Source. Another interesting detail was vaguely described by Greenglass. In the center of the bomb, he said, was a beryllium sphere that provided a source of neutrons to make the plutonium explode more suddenly. He may have had in mind a mixture of beryllium and radium, the usual laboratory source of small numbers of neutrons. When bombarded by alpha-particles from radium, beryllium releases neutrons and turns into ordinary carbon. But he may have been right in saying that the central sphere was made of, pure beryllium. Plutonium itself emits alpha-particles, which might knock useful neutrons...
...Eugene Gardner, a brilliant young nuclear physicist, was working in 1942 at Berkeley, Calif, with the Manhattan (atom bomb) Project. His secret work required him to drill a hole in an electrode made of beryllium oxide. Out of the hole a fine dust rose, and 29-year-old Gardner inhaled it. He did not know, nor did anyone know at the time, that the beryllium in the dust was a slow, implacable poison...
...became nationally known as co-discoverer (with Dr. Giulio Lattes) of the man-made meson, a basic atomic particle produced by the 184-inch cyclotron at the University of California (TIME, March 15, 1948). About the same time his disease was finally diagnosed correctly as berylliosis (beryllium poisoning...
...chief proved or suspected producing agents, as Hueper lists them: physical agents, such as ultraviolet rays; inorganic substances, such as beryllium and selenium; organic chemicals, e.g., benzol; certain by-products from the process of refining oil shale and petroleum; vegetable products, e.g., betel nuts...
Edith Gwynn, a short, beryllium-hard brunette, in her late 30s, writes with the brash confidence of a columnist who knows she can't be fired. Her job, which pays about $300 a week, is guaranteed by her divorce settlement with the Reporter's Publisher W. R. ("Billy") Wilkerson. Natty, collie-eyed Billy has had plenty of experience with divorce settlements (his present wife is No. 5), but he never made a better one. Edie Gwynn's scatterbrained manner, quick bursts of nervous laughter and lavishly indiscriminate endearments ("lambie pie, beautiful cookie") hide a razor-sharp nose...