Word: plastic
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...went to work on Debbie's exposed heart as a narrator filled in crisp details: "Notice the oversized aorta and beneath it the narrow, underdeveloped pulmonary artery. Tapes are prepared for shutting off the main vessels which carry the blood to Debbie's heart and lungs. The plastic tubes are passed through a chamber of the heart to the large veins. Debbie's heart is opened." Then an injection of potassium citrate stopped the heart for 15 minutes; in throat-parching closeups, the hole inside Debbie's still, flaccid heart, too big for safe stitching...
...nose-cone problem-how to bring a missile's warhead down through the atmosphere without too much heat damage-can be approached in very complicated or in very simple ways. A simple way that looks promising for even the fastest-falling missiles: sheathe the cone with Astrolite, a plastic made by H. I. Thompson Fiber Glass Co. of Los Angeles. Astrolite looks like the familiar brownish material used in workers' hard hats, but the fibers that reinforce the plastic are silica (quartz) instead of glass...
When Astrolite is exposed to a blast of high-temperature gas, a thin layer of the plastic on the surface burns off, leaving a mat of silica fibers arranged so that they cannot be easily blown away. At 3,000° F. (about the melting point of iron), they begin to soften, but melted silica is sticky, viscous stuff that clings tight until it turns to vapor. The vaporizing process draws heat from the remaining Astrolite and tends to keep it cool...
Astrolite cannot resist continuous high temperature (the plastic binder melts at about 450° F.), but it is remarkably successful against short attacks of extreme heat. It is used in 20 types of missiles, sometimes in the nose cones, sometimes in other hot spots such as the nozzles of rocket motors. The Thompson company says that a laminated layer of Astro-lite two-tenths of an inch thick can protect the nose of an IRBM. For an ICBM, which enters the atmosphere much faster, four inches may be needed. This thickness weighs, says Thompson, only one-fifteenth as much...
...heighten the impact of Mies's austere geometry, the building and plaza were finished off in rich materials. Siding the plaza are thick strips of green marble; inside, the elevator lobbies have travertine walls and terrazzo floors. In the Seagram offices most walls are covered with vinyl plastic, the executive suites with panels of English oak, the couch in the executive washroom with white plastic. Cracked Architecture Critic Henry Russell Hitchcock: "I've never seen more of less...