Document 0JkGb99R49d3y9xLZq7mMRnvd

FILE NAME Newspaper & Magazine Articles NMA DATE 1964 Dec DOC NMA018 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Scientific American - Dangerous Dust | AMERICANAMERICAN 4 Established 1845 December 1964 Volume 211 Number 6 5 I3 5 ;3 q |4 3 i i' 27 38 48 68 80 90 106 116 ARTICLES HURRICANE MODIFICATION by R. H. Simpson and Joanne S. Malkus Seeding of key clouds may set off a chain of events reducing the force of a storm THE GEOLOGY OF THE MOON by Eugene M. Shoemaker Stratigraphy applied with new techniques gives a time scale of lunar events PIGMENT COLOR VISION by Edward F. MacNichol Jr. A study of individual retinal cells suggests the mechanism of color discrimination DIGESTING ENZYMES by Hans Neurath Examination of their molecular structure yields clues about how all enzymes work FLUID CONTROL DEVICES by Stanley W. Angrist In some instances they do amplifying and switching better than electronic devices THE HOPEWELL CULT by Olaf H. Prufer A rubbish heap in Ohio is yielding answers to questions about Indian customs HOW CELLS MAKE ANTIBODIES by G. J. V. Nossal Experiments with single cells suggest that the genes direct antibody manufacture QUANTIZED VORTEX RINGS IN SUPERFLUID HELIUM by F. Reif They resemble smoke rings and show discrete quantum effects on a large scale 8 14 20 60 124 134 143 150 154 DEPARTMENTS LETTERS 50 & 100 YEARS AGO THE AUTHORS SCIENCE AND THE CITIZEN MATHEMATICAL GAMES THE AMATEUR SCIENTIST BOOKS ANNUAL INDEX BIBLIOGRAPHY BOARD O EDITORS ART DEPARTMENT PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT COPY DEPARTMENT GENERAL MANAGER ADVERTISING MANAGER ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER Gerard Piel Publisher Dennis Flanagan Editor Francis Bello Associate Editor Frederick H. Gardner James R. Newman John Purcell James T. Rogers Armand Schwab Jr. C. L. Stong Joseph Wisnovsky Jerome Snyder Art Director Samuel L. Howard Assistant Art Director Joan Starwood Gerald Meyerson Production Manager Richard Sasso Assistant Production Manager Sally Porter Jenks Copy Chief Dorothy Bates Julio E. Xavier Donald H. Miller Jr. Martin M. Davidson Stephen M. Fischer PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN INC 415 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK N.Y. 10017. COPYRIGHT '1964 BY SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN INC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SECOND POSTAGE PAID AT NEW YORK N.Y. AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES AUTHORIZED AS SECCLASS MAIL BY THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT OTTAWA CANADA AND FOR PAYMENT OF POSTAGE IN CASH SUBSCRIPTION RATE 7 PER YEAR pins completely oxidized but apparent- present as a result of general atmo- TMI Tubing Stays On The ly made of copper Two of them each half an inch long and a sixteenth of an inch in diameter were pointed at one end the third was pointed at both ends and bent at more than a right angle Making such shapes as these from native copper would require hammer- spheric contamination It is not clear what the tumor- producing factor in asbestos is Of the three asbestos silicates in general indus trial use two contain traces of iron and the third has relatively high concentra- tions of nickel and chromium All three ing a technique only a few steps metals are known to be carcinogenically Progress Beam removed from full metallurgy The dis- active Two of the asbestos minerals TRS coverers are now awaiting laboratory contain appreciable amounts of natural se ae analyses to determine if the three pins hydrocarbons some of which are also PF Fer ES me are indeed copper If such is the case carcinogenic Miss Cambel and Braidwood point out it will prove that 9,000 years ago the The Opossum as a Player people of Cayonu were using metal as ae metal rather than as another object such as stone and wood A opossum playing possum is genuinely feigning death three researchers at the Children's Hospital of Dangerous Dust Dust consisting of fine fibers of asbestos which are insoluble and virtu- Los Angeles have decided on the basis of electroencephalograph records The opossum state is well established in American folklore Under attack the ally indestructible may become a public health problem in the near future At a recent international conference on the little marsupial suddenly slumps into a motionless ball with its head down its mouth open and its eyes fixed in a biological effects of asbestos sponsored glassy stare Such behavior obviously by the New York Academy of Sciences participants pointed out on the one hand that workers exposed to asbestos dust are prone in later life to develop functions as a defense mechanism seeming to be dead the animal is left for dead and it revives when the coast is clear There has been some doubt lung cancer and on the other hand that however whether the opossum is actu- the use of this family of fibrous silicate ally feigning death or is in an involun- AGlH| TMI adopted one of business most challenging axioms years ago Think big about little things By doing so TMI tubing has developed the dependable habit of helping our customers improve their profit pat- terns and their product performances compounds has expanded enormously during the past few decades A laboratory curiosity 100 years ago asbestos today is a major component of such building materials as shingles and roof- ing papers floor tiles insulation wall- tary cataleptic state induced by physiological changes caused by the attack Allen C. Norton Anthony V. Beran and George A. Misrahy report in Nature that they implanted electrodes on the skulls of 15 opossums Didelphis vir- It takes plenty of TMI experienced research and drawing ingenuity to set such a leadership pace but it's worth it Little things in quality methods spell out the Big difference that keeps TMI tubing on the progress beam in aerospace and nuclear applications in instrumentation and at every important board and piping and is an important ingredient in such products as gaskets brake linings and calking compounds World production of asbestos in 1962 exceeded three million tons and indus- tries in the U.S. consumed 25 percent of the total giniana They induced the opossum state in these animals by shaking them with an artificial dog jaw a device resembling a large pair of pliers and at the same time playing recorded barking sounds through a loudspeaker When first attacked an opossuin would hiss a point on the metalworking horizon Stay on the Progress Beam with TMI a The standard range of quality production at TMI to 1.250 O.D. cold seamless and Welded Stainless high One result of this increasing use is that asbestos dust is frequently encountered in ordinary daily life J. G. Thomson of the University of Cape Town Medical School in South Africa and growl and try to fight back at the jaw but then suddenly all activity would cease and the animal seemed to be dead for as long as two or three minutes Electroencephalograph records | temperatures and high corrosion alloys including Haynes and Huntington alloys { reported to the conference on 500 consecutive autopsies performed in Cape Town and 500 in Miami Fla on in- dividuals over the age of 15. Smears taken before during and after the artificially induced opossum state showed no change except perhaps a heightened arousal level caused by the attack and were taken from the bottom of the | lungs in both South Africa and the perimenters l U.S. characteristic asbestos bodies persisting after revival To simulate the natural situation more closely the ex- allowed real dogs to shake | were found in 20 percent of the females and 30 percent of the males Some of the males showed asbestos bodies in na^flveanimals into an opossum state that lasted five or six minutes Again there was no difference in the brain TUBE METHODS INC | + ENGINEERS METALLURGISTS MANUFACTURERS a BRIDGEPORT Montgomery County PA : such abundance that occupational ex- posure to asbestos dust appeared prob- able in 80 percent of all positive cases however the incidence was low enough to suggest that the asbestos bodies were waves during the state and after recovery Finding no evidence of unusual brain activity the investigators con- cluded that the folklore is correct the " animal is merely playing possum 64