Word: comptons
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...Chicago last week Arthur Holly Compton, one of the world's most famed cosmic ray experts, startled a gathering of some 100 distinguished physicists by retracting a theory which he had espoused two and a half years ago, and by putting forth a new one in its place. Cosmic rays are electrified particles which constantly bombard Earth from every direction. It is estimated that about 30 shoot through every human body every second. They have energies higher than any particles ever propelled by man-made machines- energies, in some cases, measured in hundreds of billions of electron-volts...
...several years, while cosmic ray research was emerging from its infancy, University of Chicago's Compton engaged in a polite but nonetheless spirited controversy with California Institute of Technology's Robert Andrews Millikan. Compton contended that the rays were mostly electric particles, Millikan that they were mostly photons (electrically inert bundles of radiation). In January 1936, Compton presented a thoroughgoing resume of his researches up to that time which neutral observers considered a "cosmic clearance"-i.e., a victory for Compton (TIME, Jan. 13, 1936). By that time most cosmic ray workers were speaking in terms of particles...
...Compton, like practically all of his colleagues, still believes the rays to be particles. The retraction he made last week concerned their place of origin. He once believed they came from the remotest depths of space beyond the Milky Way, which is the huge galaxy of stars to which the sun and its planets inconspicuously belong. The disc-shaped Milky Way appears to be slowly rotating like an enormous wheel. Therefore, if the rays come from outside the galaxy, whichever side of Earth happens to be facing the direction of rotation should receive a few more rays than the back...
High spot of the evening was the tearful speech of sallow-faced, hollow-eyed Novelist Compton Mackenzie, whose plans for a pro-Edward book, The Windsor Tapestry, were quashed by the Duke himself. "We want him back!" wailed Author Mackenzie. "We don't want to send greetings to France. We want to send them to Fort Belvedere [the Duke's former residence outside London]. The country needs him, for he is the greatest influence for the peace of Europe...
...entered Harvard, announced that it had received from him a gift of $647,700 for a research program to investigate the direct methods of harnessing solar power -mechanical, electrical, chemical. Far from being floored by the prospect of such an enterprise, M. I. T.'s President Karl Taylor Compton feels that the Institute is well equipped to carry it out. Said he: "Mr. Cabot's generous gift makes it possible for the Institute to begin a great research program in which the combined efforts of scientists and engineers . . . will be concentrated...