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* 6 issues per year. EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief Carol White FUSION Managing Editor Marjorie Mazel Hecht SCIENCE • TECHNOLOGY • ECONOMICS • POLITICS Fusion Technology Editor May-June 1986 Vol. 8, No. 3 Charles B. Stevens Washington Editor Features Marsha Freeman Energy Editor 36 The Wonders of Uranus William Engdahl Books Editor Voyager 2 Opens Up an Unusual New World David Cherry Marsha Freeman and Jim Everett Art Director After traveling 3 billion miles and 8V2 years, Voyager 2 has provided us Alan Yue with the first close-up views of Uranus. Photo Editor Carlos de Hoyos 43 Defeating Aids: How Lasers Can Help Advertising Manager Wolfgang Lillge,M.D. Joseph Cohen (703) 689-2497 The United States needs a "biological SDI," a crash program to advance Circulation and Subscription Manager laser and spectroscopy research to the point that we can screen for and Dianne Oliver eliminate the AIDS virus and other deadly diseases. (703) 777-6055

49 The Significance of the SDI for Advanced Space Propulsion and Basic Research FUSION (ISSN 0148-0537) is published 6 limes Dr. Friedwardt Winterberg a year, every other month, by the Fusion Energy A noted fusion scientist speculates on the SDI technologies that can be Foundation, P.O. Box 17149, Washington, D.C. 20041-0149. Tel. (703) 689-2490. Dedicated to used for advanced space propulsion. providing accurate and comprehensive information on advanced energy technologies and policies, FUSION is committed to restoring American sci­ News entific and technological leadership. FUSION cov­ erage of the frontiers of science focuses on the SPECIAL REPORT seil-developing qualities of the physical universe 9 )udge Takes a Stand Against Starvation Treatment in such areas as plasma physics—the basis for fusion power—as well as biology and microphys- NUCLEAR REPORT ics, and includes ground-breaking studies of the 10 Superphenix: World's Largest Breeder Comes on Line historical development of science and technology. The views of the FEF are stated in the editorials. 11 Taiwan's Fight to Go Nuclear Opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily WASHINGTON REPORT those of the FEF directors or advisory board.

13 The Reagan Administration Fusion Budget Subscriptions by mail are $20 for 6 issues or 16 Who's Out to Destroy NASA? $38 for 12 issues in the USA; $25 tor 6 issues in Canada. Airmail subscriptions to other countries 17 Cost Accounting: Slow, But Sure Death to NASA are $40 for 6 issues. BEAM TECHNOLOGY REPORT Address all correspondence to FUSION, P.O. Box 17149, Washington, D.C. 20041-0149. 19 Los Alamos 'Trailmaster' Drives for Fusion RESEARCH REPORT Second class postage paid at Washington, D.C. 22 Galileo Proven Wrong! and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to FUSION, P.O. Box 17149, 25 An Interview with Dr. Benny Soldano: Washington, D.C. 20041-0149. The Nonequivalence of Inertial and Gravitational Mass 28 German Physicist Demonstrates Quantum Hall Effect 31 An Interview with Klaus von Klitzing 32 New Experimental Results Surprise Quantum Theory 33 Low-Energy Positrons in Pair Creation 34 Curing Lung Cancer with Laser Light THE YOUNG SCIENTIST Copyright O 1986 57 An Interview with 'Teachernaut' Judith Garcia Fusion Energy Foundation Printed in the USA 59 Probing Inside a Comet Tail All Rights Reserved 61 Yes, Comets Are Made of Water ISSN 0148-0537 USPS 437-370 Departments On the cover: Illustration by Don Davis of a 2 EDITORIAL 6 NEWS BRIEFS computer-generated view of Voyager 2 about 45 minutes after it passed through the plane of Ur- 4 IN MEMORIAM 8 VIEWPOINT anus's rings. Illustration is courtesy of NASA; cover 5 LETTERS design by Virginia Baier Editorial

The Frontiers of Physics?

In this issue we report on a number of new discoveries, is the angle found by dividing 360° by the square of the or more precisely, a recasting of old discoveries, that are golden mean, (360 4- 2.618 = 2.618, approximately 137°). nibbling away at what are normally considered to be the This angle crops up repeatedly in the placement of leaves unchallengeable assumptions of physics. We welcome these as they form around a stem. And the golden mean ratio developments as a healthy sign. itself is found throughout the morphological structure of Are the results we are reporting at the frontiers of phys­ animals (in particular the human body) and in shell forma­ ics? We think not. What is missing is a commitment on the tion. part of the scientific community to challenge the most fun­ What is the significance of the new results reported upon damental assumptions of physics: to do away with the in this issue? abominable notion that the universe is an epiphenomenon We are not prepared to say yet, but it is clear that their of the interaction of particles and forces. implications will be revealed only as physics rejects the The exciting aspect of the discoveries we report, coupled present, fundamentally algebraic approach for a return to with a brief communication from nuclear physicist Erich the geometric approach that guided the work of Gauss, Bagge, is the convergence upon an alernative treatment of Riemann, and their scientific predecessors. The prominent certain problematic notions otherwise accepted in physics: appearance oi the fine structure constant is merely for example, the existence of the neutrino and the nonex­ one indicator that such a shift in approach is long over­ istence (or at least polarization) of the vacuum. due. It is clear that much of the work we are reporting depends upon the fine structure constant. It appears in the empirical The Classical Method and Natural Law formula that describes the variation of what was heretofore Every major development in modern physics has always known as the gravitational constant; it appears in physicist carried forward the method of Leonardo da Vinci and Jo­ B. Soldano's work as the bridge between his "correction hannes Kepler. Both approached science with the sure factor" and Planck's constant; and it appears as an apparent knowledge that the universe was organized according to an constraint that is violated i n the Darmstadt results. Lawfully, overriding natural law. They believed that God's universe this should be the case, because the fine structure constant was both good and beautiful, and therefore that physical is closely tied to the rotational action of "orbiting" electrons laws must be essentially harmonic in character. Both saw in an atom. the golden mean as an essential harmonic characteristic of The simplest way of thinking about the fine structure the creation. constant is in terms of a planetary model of the atom. It may For Leonardo or Kepler, it would have been ludicrous to be likened to the aberration of the Earth's orbit caused by pose any physical process as a purposeless epiphenome­ the shift of its axis, which occurs much in the way as a non of the interaction of brute particles imbued with dumb spinning top widens its spin orbit as its axis tilts toward the force. Kepler came to his great achievements in astronomy ground. because he was fully convinced that God gave man the task The fine structure constant itself tantalizes because it is of uplifting his mind by understanding the lawful ordering approximately the inverse of the "golden mean angle." This of the Sun and planets.

2 May-)une 1986 FUSION Editorial Leonardo da Vinci anticipated all of the greatest achieve­ significance of the "divine ratio," the golden mean, in all ments of modern hydrodynamics, including emphatically life processes, including the living universe. the existence of shock waves, because he knew that man's Johannes Kepler took this further, and identified five laws reasoning mind could understand this universe, which is of planetary action: the three commonly associated with governed by natural law, and that man's task was to use his him; the lawful distancing of the planets from the Sun ac­ Cod-given reason to continually perfect the Creation. cording to the golden mean principle which is embedded The predominance of natural law assures the coherence in the constructibility of the five regular Platonic solids; and of the universe—and our own ability to act upon it. This the harmonic ordering of eccentricities of the planetary coherence is not at all uniformity; it cannot be found by a orbits according to scale steps governing the distance be­ search for a fundamental particle. The law of the universe tween perihelion and aphelion of neighboring planets. is not a set of rules governing the behavior of objects; it is a process of perfectability. The Universe Is Negentropic The universe acts upon itself not as a continually repeat­ Unlike Isaac Newton, Kepler rightly insisted that the pla­ ing cycle, but as a spiral rotation, which continually grows netary orbits are primary, and that the mass of the planets in potentiality as it expands; and this growth in potentiality, was derived from the harmonically preformed orbits. This in turn, is continually expanded. This is true for the universe is precisely the conceptual framework from which the worK as a whole, in the macrocosm, and it is equally true for the of B. Soldano must be viewed. Is it not obviously the ca_"e microcosm. In this sense, the universe is fundamentally that if Soldano is correct, what appears to us as matter is hydrodynamic in nature—electrohydrodynamic. merely a singularity within a highly complex field structure: For both Leonardo and Kepler, the golden-mean ratio That is the proper implication of the divergence of the in- best expressed this ordering principle, because it is the ertial and gravitational binding energy of matter. projection in visual space of this kind of hydrodynamic The only law of the universe is the lawfulness of its own processes as self-similar, logarithmic spiral action. (Not ac­ self;development and transformation. This is the means by cidentally, populations also grow by this same, "fibonacci which the Creator continues to perfect his creation. A col­ series" golden-mean ordering principle. A couple of rab­ lection of particles that operates randomly to provide ap­ bits who reproduce themselves after maturing one month, parent or episodic organization locally could never develop grow in a series 1, 2, 3, 5,8,13, and soon; and each term in according to such an inborn principle of perfection. The this continuing series approaches more and more closely Second Law of Thermodynamics is a useful calculating de­ in a golden mean ratio to the preceding term.) vice in certain problems relating to the efficiency of me­ It was obvious to Leonardo that the human body and chanical and thermodynamic processes, and so on. It is in plants must follow the same spiral, rotational geometry he no way a guiding universal principle. To the contrary: the identified in the flow of water and the pattern of cloud universe is negentropic not entropic. formation, the same we see in the formation of galaxies, We see this in the fact of our own existence as mankind— and the same that governs all fluid motion. It was Leonardo, and more surely in the potential of future mankind to know with his collaborator Luca Pacioli, who first identified the and inhabit the universe.

Editorial FUSION May-June 1986 In Memoriam

'Mr. Gas Turbine': An Appreciation of R. Tom Sawyer

R. Tom Sawyer, inventor of the first Chrysler, introduced it. successful gas-turbine-charged diesel Born June 20,1901 in Schenectady, locomotive and a founding member of N.Y., Tom grew up with a love for the Fusion Energy Foundation, died things mechanical. His father, presi­ Courtesy of American Society of Mechanical Engineers Jan. 22, 1986 at age 84. dent of the Electrical Street Railroad R. Tom Sawyer Association, explained to him at age 5 June 20, 1901-Jan. 22,1986 In 1918, at age 17, Tom Sawyer how electricity was made of positive showed a drawing of a gas turbine en­ and negative ions and how it was used gine he had designed to his high school to do work. It was he who influenced submitting a thesis on diesel electric teacher Julius Stone. "That is our fu­ Tom to go into the public power busi­ locomotives. ture power plant for centuries to come, ness. Tom's first job was at the General but you and I will not live to see the While attending school, Tom held a Electric Co. in Schenectady in the steam day," Stone told him. But he was number of summer jobs, ranging from turbine test department in 1923. The wrong; he did live to see the day in mechanic at Seagrave Co., to engine next year he helped assemble a diesel 1947, at the age of 93. tester at Cushman Motor Co., and locomotive at the Erie Works, and the Tom Sawyer devoted much of his life draftsman at Tennessee Power Co. year after that he delivered the first to the development of the gas turbine He graduated from Ohio State Uni­ diesel locomotive sold in the USA to engine, and the name "Mr. Gas Tur­ versity in 1923 with a B.S. degree in the Bronx switching yard of the Central bine" stuck with him ever since George electrical engineering, later earning a Railroad of New Jersey. This was a 600 Huebner, director of Research at B.S. in mechanical engineering after horsepower, 60-ton locomotive, and Tom patented a relay design for a com­ plete automatic transfer to accelerate the locomotive. In 1927, Tom asked his boss for a The Closed-Cycle Gas Turbine motor and generator, which he in­ stalled into a new auto, and then he Tom Sawyer ceaselessly promoted the closed-cycle gas turbine as the took this electric-driven car with him "most efficient turbine burning any fuel." The steam turbine, he said in on a freighter to Australia. There he 1985, is of the open-cycle type, "the same as the jet and practically all other used itto help sell 10electromotive rail gas turbines being built today. The reason the closed-cycle gas turbine is cars to the Victorian Railways, each with more efficient is that the air or helium coming out of the tubine has to be a gasoline engine-generator and two cooled down before it goes back into the compressor. Cooling it with motors on one truck. From Australia water produces steam, which requires no additional fuel. he traveled to Switzerland, where he "When a new product is invented it often takes 50 years before it is really met Dr. Biichi, the inventor of the tur- accepted, and in this case the closed-cycle gas turbine was invented in bocharger, and to Berlin, where he saw 1935, just 50 years ago. Several companies are now building a few, so in his first gas turbine. another 10 years, the closed-cycle gas turbine should be popular, espe­ Tom joined the American Locomo­ cially since powdered coal is a good fuel for it. Also there is an organization tive Company in 1930 because they pushing the helium-cooled reactor and the most efficient way to produce needed someone who knew diesel lo­ power is to use the helium to drive a closed-cycle gas turbine." comotives. Four years later, he mar­ ried Ruth Ennis, whose father had de­ signed the world's largest steam loco-

4 May-June 1986 FUSION In Memoriam A Campaign for motive, "Big Boy." At American Loco­ Cultural Optimism: motive, he continued his work with diesels. And in 1951, he designed for Fusion in Every Library! the U.S. Army the world's first gas tur­ Letters bine locomotive with mechanical drive, After the Shuttle accident Ian. 28, which is now on display atthe National Fusion Energy Foundation supporters Museum of Transportation in St. Louis. Food Irradiation initiated a campaign in the memory of Although he retired in 1956, Tom and AIDS the Shuttle crew to put Fusion maga­ never stopped promoting the gas tur­ zine in high schools, colleges, and li­ bine. In 1959, he became editor of Cas To the Editor: braries across the country, beginning Turbine magazine with its first issue in You people want to destroy us be­ with those schools from which the as­ January 1960. Three years later he pro­ fore time. With all the radiation we have tronauts had graduated. duced the first Cas Turbine Catalog. enough of cancer without this [food Nearly 6,000bulk subscriptions have He was also active as exhibit director irradiation], which is as bad as AIDS. been donated so far, and before the forthe Gas Turbine Division (which he Leopololina Boehm end of 1986, the foundation would like had formed) of the American Society New Orleans, La. to increase this to 100,000. If you would of Mechanical Engineers. This includ­ like to participate in this campaign, call ed organizing a conference in Sydney, The Editor Replies or write the FEF in Washington, D.C. Australia in 1969, and one in Tokyo in This letter was sent to us with a xerox Donations to the foundation are tax 1971. of an article titled "Zapping Your Daily deductible. Throughout his life, Tom was in­ Diet: The Risks of Food Irradiation" by We print here some of the letters the volved in national and international as­ Mark Mayell in the February 1986 issue foundation has received from recipi­ sociations promoting advances in of East West journal. ent schools. technologies. He was a member of Sig­ The article's theme is what the anti- ma Xi; a fellow and life member of IEEE; nukes have termed "food fascism," and To the Editor: a life member Society of Automotive the author catalogs the antinuclear, Thank you very much for the dona­ Engineers; a fellow, life, and honorary antitechnology, antipopulation litany tion of 80 subscriptions of Fusion mag­ member of The American Society of of the likes of Drs. Sidney Wolfe and azine to Firestone High School. The Mechanical Engineers; a member of John Gofman. The author dismisses the students and staff are very apprecia­ the American Nuclear Society; and a scientific evidence showing food irra­ tive of this donation in memory of Ju­ life member of AIAA. diation to be safe with the following: dith A. Resnik. On the Frontiers of Technology "Many people feel that there is an en­ Please communicate our thanks to He was also on the board of direc­ ergy' or 'life force' inherent in foods. the Fusion Energy Foundation sup­ tors of the American Rocket Society Radiation's potential effect on a food's porters who made this gift possible. with Dr. Pendary and Dr. Goddard who life force may be important, though Diane Greene organized it before the Soviets not amenable to scientific inquiry." Superintendent's Office launched Sputnik. (According to Tom, The scare stories relayed by author Board of Education the U.S. government and others did Mayell are the same tired lies about Akron, Ohio not believe in large rockets until 1957, food irradiation repeated by all the when Sputnik showed they would antinuclear activists. As with the ques­ To the Editor: work.) Tom also helped form the tion of civilian nuclear power, it does The staff and gifted students of American Nuclear Society in 1954, and not seem to matter that these stories VanDevender Junior High wish to assisted in founding the Atomic Indus­ have been refuted in great detail by thank you for sharing Fusion magazine trial Forum. scientists. The antinukes keep repeat­ with us. Of his many books that helped push ing their scare stories regardless of the We share together the memory of the technology forward, The Modern facts, perhaps hoping that if they re­ the astronauts of the Challenger and Gas Turbine (1945), published by Pren­ peat their lies often enough, the lies will make good use of your gift in their tice-Hall, was most popular and was will turn into truths. memory. republished in England, Japan, and the Interestingly, the same people who Steve Farner Soviet Union. It described many gas are on the warpath against food irra­ Vice-Principal turbine applications—the jet engine, diation are the champions of the AIDS VanDevender Junior High School vehicle and automotive engines, and virus, protecting it from quarantine Parkersburg, West Virginia all sizes of power generators. measures and thus ensuring that the Another book, Applied Atomic Pow­ deadly virus is given every opportunity To the Editor: er (1966), described the nuclear gas to spread. It seems as though these On behalf of the faculty and stu­ turbine power plant that was built by antinukes see AIDS and otherepidem- dents of Satellite High School, I would the West German government 20 years ic diseases as a way, as Prince Philip of like to thank you and the supporters of later. the World Wildlife Fund put it, to "cull" the Fusion Energy Foundation for the —Thoula Frangos an overpopulated earth. Continued on page 35

In Memoriam FUSION May-June 1986 5 News Briefs

NASA CELEBRATES FIRST LIQUID FUEL ROCKET FLIGHT NASA launched a model of the first liquid rocket to celebrate the 60th anni­ versary March 16 of Robert H. Coddard's historic launch. Appropriately, the event took place at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Creenbelt, Md., which bears the inventor's name. Col. Howard Kuhn depicted Goddard and Jon Rains his assistant, while a crowd of 300 cheered the launch.

NEW ETHICS FOR MEDICAL PROFESSION: MURDER OF TERMINALLY ILL The American Medical Association revised its code of ethics in March to allow physicians to withhold food and water from the terminally ill and the irreversibly comatose, announced Dr. Nancy Dickey, head of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, March 15. The revision took 2V2 years to formulate. "At issue was whether removing food and water was tantamount to murder," Dickey said. "Society and technology have changed to the point where there are tremendous numbers of patients who are in a coma and being maintained by artificial technologies. . . . The physician's primary obligation is to sustain life, not to prolong it. . . . There is absolutely nothing that states you must feel compelled to or should even feel guilty if you choose not to. It simply says there are no ethical pronouncements against the physician who decides to [remove Stuart K. Lewis life supports]." NASA launches model of Coddard's rocket. HEAD OF WEST GERMAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION ATTACKS EUTHANASIA Dr. Karsten Vilmar, president of the German Doctors Chamber, attacked euthanasia as a return to the policies of the Nazis. In an interview with the mass- circulation Bild am Sonntag Feb. 23, Vilmar said: "If active death-help were to be legalized among us, what would come next would be death injections for the solution of sick pensioners. . . . We must rather recognize on what path we are entering if we don't make active death-help punishable for a doctor. Euthanasia, in the Third Reich was indeed also introduced and prepared with the so-called right of mercy killing. It is simply not tolerable if we come to the point that human beings can be put to sleep like animals. . . ."

TELLER SAYS MIRROR-FOCUSED LASERS CAN DEFEND EUROPE It would be "relatively easy" to hit and destroy Soviet intermediate-range missiles using a "pop-up" mirror to focus a ground-based laser, Dr. Edward Teller told a March 3 meeting of the Wehrkunde military organization in Munich. The mirror would be effective even as it was being rocketed out of the atmo­ sphere, he said, and it would not be vulnerable to a preemptive attack, as would an orbiting mirror. Soviet SS-20s and shorter range missiles would be sitting ducks, because there fuel tanks are vulnerable to destruction in the boost phase.

FEF HOLDS CONFERENCE ON SDI TECHNOLOGY IN BELGIUM A conference on the technological and industrial implications of the Strategic Defense Initiative drew 65 persons in Liege, Belgium Feb. 26. Cosponsored by the Fusion Energy Foundation and Atlantic Association of Belgium, the confer­ ence covered the strategic situation, in particular the importance of the military economic mobilization of the Soviet Union. German-language Fusion editor Heinz Horeis spoke on the ABCs of beam technologies, and French-language Fusion editor Laurent Rosenfeld descibed the spinoffs of the SDI program, comparing the situation to Roosevelt's mobilization of the U.S. economy at the beginning of World War II.

LARGEST U.S. NUCLEAR PLANT NEARS COMPLETION The Arizona Nuclear Power Project, the largest nuclear plant in the Western world, is now in the final stages of completion. Located 55 miles from downtown Phoenix, the 3,513-megawatt three-unit Palo Verde plant will provide more than Courtesy of The Laborer, Jan-Feb. 1986. 25 percent of Arizona Public Service Company's electric needs. At the peak of The domed containment building of construction, more than 6,000 union building tradesmen were employed at the Unit 7, a structure 244 feet high. site. Approximately 6 million cubic yards of earth were excavated, more than

6 May-June 1986 FUSION News Briefs 77,000 tons of reinforcing steel were installed, and about 694,000 cubic yards of concrete were mixed and poured.

DR. ROBERT J. MOON, IJFE EDITOR, CELEBRATES 75TH BIRTHDAY With music, jokes, reminiscences, food, and drink, the 75th birthday of Dr. Robert J. Moon, a pioneer in the nation's effort to harness the power of the atom, was celebrated Feb. 14. One hundred and fifty appreciative friends at­ tended the event sponsored by the Fusion Energy Foundation. Moon, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Fusion Energy, has been on the frontiers of nuclear research for decades. In 1929, as a student in the physics department at the University of Chicago, he proposed a doctorate thesis on fusion energy, but was told that "everything is already known about fusion." Undeterred, he moved to the de­ partment of physical chemistry, and in the course of his work on electron dif­ fraction, he built what was at the time the world's largest cyclotron. When the Manhattan Project was organized, Moon played a crucial role in the construction of the first nuclear reactor. Later, he was the first to build a scanning X-ray system that led to today's CAT scanner, the first to discover the correct cathode surface for a high-current electron gun, and the first editor of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, just to note a few of his accomplishments.

FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION KILLS SMALL ARTIFICIAL HEART Dr. Moon: Ready for another 75 pro­ The Food and Drug Administration ordered the manufacturer of the artificial ductive years. heart, Symbion, Inc., to remove the newer, smaller version from all medical institutions, even though it is the only one capable of fitting into the smaller chest cavity of a woman. "I think the FDA should recognize its responsibility for the denial of life-saving technology," said Robert Jarvik, M.D., developer of the artificial heart. The smaller device was also defended by Dr. Denton Cooley of Houston, who carried out the first implant operation in 1969, as virtually identical to the larger device and very promising. About 20-25 percent of heart patients die because there is no available transplant.

FEF SEMINAR ON AIDS AND ITS CHALLENGE TO SCIENCE The Fusion Energy Foundation and the weekly Executive Intelligence Review cosponsored a seminar Feb. 22 on the scientific problems posed by AIDS. The presentations ranged from a historical view by Warren Hamerman of optical biophysics from the standpoint of Louis Pasteur's breakthroughs in the mid- 19th century, to a shocking expose by Dr. Mark Whiteside of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Miami of the spread of AIDS through the south. AIDS is a tropical disease syndrome spread by insects and is currently out of control in areas of economic squalor, he said. It is rampant in south Florida and south Texas because mosquitoes breed there year-round, and in slums like Belle Glade, Fla., people get an average of 100 mosquito bites per day. Ten percent of the general population in Belle Glade, he said, test positive to the AIDS virus antibody—the same percentage as in tropical Africa.

PRINCE CHARLES'S VALET DIES OF AIDS According to the Jan. 27 issue of the West German mass circulation daily Bildzeitung, Prince Charles's valet died recently of AIDS. The paper notes that this was the same individual whom Princess Diane wanted fired on the grounds that he was too "intimate" with her husband. This is the second reported death from AIDS within the immediate circles of the British royal family. The first was Lord Avon.

LOUSEWORT LAURELS TO CHICAGO CITY COUNCIL This issue's Lousewort Laurels award goes to the City Council of Chicago for its ordinance declaring the city a "nuclear free zone." Adopted by a voice vote March 12, the ordinance bans the design, production, or storage of nuclear weapons in Chicago and requires a phase-out of the city's nuclear weapons industry within two years. We agree with Illinois Governor James Thompson: the ordinance is "stupid and un-American. . . . Are we supposed to just lay down for the Russians?"

News Briefs FUSION May-June 1986 Viewpoint ecently there has been wide­ Radon in Houses: tion exposure from radon than we ever got from nuclear weapons tests, and spread publicity about radon, a What Are the Dangers? R naturally occurring radioactive 10 times more than the average Amer­ gas, believed to cause 5,000 to 30,000 ican gets from medical and dental X- deaths from lung cancer in the United rays. If anyone worries about radiation States each year. In some areas where in any way, shape, or form, he should radon levels are high, the situation be worrying about radon in his house. verges on panic. What is this new It is interesting that wastes from coal threat? burning include radium, which even­ Radium occurs in all rock and soil, tually converts into radon. It turns out and by purely natural processes, it that this radioactive waste is thousands converts into radon, a gas that perco­ of times more harmful to human health lates up out of the soil into the air. If than all of the nuclear power radioac­ tive wastes! this occurs outdoors, the radon mixes by Dr. Bernard L Cohen high into the atmosphere becoming Nuclear power also has its radon heavily diluted, but, if it occurs under problems, principally from mill tail­ or adjacent to a house, the radon may being poor (versus being well-to-do) ings near uranium mines. However, it be trapped inside for some time. Ra­ reduces it by 4 years, being 25 pounds turns out that the lives saved in mining don levels in houses are, therefore, overweight reduces it by 2 years, and uranium out of the ground to produce typically 10 times higher than outdoor motor vehicle accidents reduce it by fuel for nuclear plants greatly exceeds levels. 200 days. For the average person, ra­ the harmful effects of the mill tailings. Each radon atom eventually con­ don is less of a threat than any of these. In fact, this aspect of nuclear power verts into other short-lived radioactive For example, for it to be as dangerous saves thousands of lives for every life atoms known collectively as "radon as motor vehicle accidents, one's lost due to effects of nuclear reactor daughters"—actually they are radio­ house would have to have 8 times the accidents and radioactive waste! And active isotopes of lead, bismuth, and average radon level—8 x 25 = 200. that is all because of radon. polonium—which then float around in Undisputed King There is some rationale for the pub­ the air. As we breathe, these radon However, compared to all other ra­ lic's interest in radon. There are pre­ daughters are sucked into our lungs diation risks, radon is the undisputed sumably a million American homes where they frequently deposit on sur­ king. It gives the average American 50 with high enough radon levels for the faces, exposing nearby cells to their times more radiation than even anti- radon risk to exceed our risk from mo­ radiation, which can cause lung can­ nuclear activists claim we will eventu­ tor vehicle accidents. This radon risk cer. ally get from nuclear power opera­ can be substantially reduced by rela­ It is estimated that this radiation ex­ tions. According to government esti­ tively simple remedial actions. For ex­ posure is giving the occupant of an av­ mates of the latter, radon is thousands ample, for half of the year, in a home erage house about one chance in 300 of times more harmful. People who live with a basement, you could open two of dying of lung cancer. In something near the Three Mile Island nuclear windows, then recycle the air through like a million American homes, the ra­ power plant get more radiation expo­ the house with a large fan in one win­ don level is over 10 times the average, sure from radon every day than they dow; homes with a crawl space can giving occupants over 10 times the risk, got in total from the highly publicized open two vents. or more than one chance in 30. reactor accident there. Measuring Radon in Your House According to this estimate, radon We get a hundred times more radia- In orderto identify these homes, the exposure in the average home reduces University of Pittsburgh operates a the life expectancy of the occupants by nonprofit measurement service. If you 25 days. We live with far greater risks: would like a measurement survey for Smoking a pack of cigarettes per day your house, send a check for $12 (pay­ reduces life expectancy by 6.5 years, able to the University of Pittsburgh) to: Radon Project, University of Pitts­ burgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. This cov­ Bernard L. Cohen is Professor of ers the cost of the postage for us to Physics at the University of Pittsburgh, send you the form and return it after and a well-known expert on nuclear ouranalysis, and provides information power and radiation. His most recent for interpreting the results and sug­ book is Before It's Too Late: A Scien­ There's more exposure from radon gestions for remedial action if the level tist's Case for Nuclear Energy. every day than from the TMI incident. is too high.

8 May-June 1986 FUSION Special Report

T, „ . i _i-//i j i. /• Stuart K. Lewis /rtere ;s no ngr?f to die. Members of the Schiller Institute at the New Jersey State capitol in Trenton protesting against proposed euthanasia legislation. KILLING THE COMATOSE j Judge Takes Stand Against Starvation Treatment by Linda Everett

EDITOR'S NOTE tion in several states. As the following starvation as neither ethical nor digni­ When the Nazis began their euthan­ report documents in uncomfortable fied. asia campaign, they justified it by de­ detail, such a form of death is torture The magnitude of the crisis can be fining the retarded, elderly, and ter­ forthe victim. But whether the method seen in these two typical cases: minally ill as "useless eaters, "a burden of murder is such slow torture or the • A California man, whose wife was on the state finances. Today the same quicker cyanide form of murder advo­ termed a "human vegetable," tried to euthanasia is phrased more prettily: The cated by the Swedish euthanasia eliminate all her food and water be­ elderly and ill have a "right to die," we movement, the point remains that kill­ cause he considered her brain injured are told. ing human beings, no matter how ill state "an unacceptable assault on her But the ugly motivation behind this they may be, is murder. dignity." The woman smiles, turns to euthanasia campaign is the same as in The prescription for preventing this face visitors, and gazes a.t the sunshine the Nazi period. In these days of budg­ nation's descent into the moral abyss when her curtains are drawn. et deficits and cutbacks, the apologists that permitted the Nazi atrocities is • A 30-year-old New Jersey woman for dying with dignity say, there just simply a heavy dose of cultural opti­ is judged by relatives to be "perma­ isn't enough money to waste on ex­ mism. This means investing the na­ nently comatose" or in a "persistent pensive medical care to keep such tion's resources into scientific and vegetative state" and therefore suit­ "useless eaters " alive. technological frontier areas in order to able for an "ethically accepted" star­ Now the euthanasia advocates have come up with cures for disabling dis­ vation death. The physicians and care­ expanded their pool of victims, rede­ eases and indeed for the process of takers of this relatively healthy young fining the word brain dead to include aging itself. lady disagree. She has a high level of anyone in a comatose state, despite * * * awareness, moves her head to follow the fact that coma recovery programs The nation's courts are under siege visitors around the room, and re­ have demonstrated a 92 percent recov­ by family members seeking court per­ sponds to light, pain, and more. Her ery rate for patients previously defined mission to give their comatose or high­ physicians feel she is, in fact, seriously as "brain dead," and a 35 percent re­ ly disabled relatives a so-called digni­ disabled and not even in a coma. Her covery rate among so-called vegeta­ fied death by starvation. This includes case, and her life, are still pending. bles—men, women, and children who a wave of "right-to-die" bills prescrib­ The Brophy Victory recover to lead normal lives. ing starvation treatment for patients In October 1985, Massachusetts Pro­ The latest technique in eliminating who never indicated that they wanted bate Court Judge David H. Kopelman these so-called brain dead is by with­ such treatment. In the midst of this ruled that the state is "morally obligat­ drawing their food so that they can die move to make euthanasia a normal ed to sustain the life an ill human being, "naturally" by starvation, a measure that policy, there was a significant victory even if one is in a persistent vegetative is being proposed for legislative adop­ by a Massachusetts judge who sees Continued on page 63

Special Report FUSION May-June 1986 Nuclear Report France has the nuclear lead worldwide, producing about 65 percent of its elec­ tricity from nuclear plants. Here, the Superphenix fast breeder reactor at Creys-Malville.

To get an idea of what this means, imagine a man stranded in a mountain refuge during a violent snow storm. The refuge has a two-day supply of dry wood, so if he carelessly consumes the wood, he will die of cold on the third day. If he gathers "worthless" wet wood and dries it in front of the fire, drying as much or more wood than he consumes, his wood reserve would last forever if there is an unlimited supply of wet wood around his refuge. The stranded man would have created a "breeder" of burnable wood. The dry wood represents uranium- 235, the only fissile isotope of urani­ um, which constitutes only about 0.7 percent of naturally occurring urani­ um. Most natural uranium, 99.3 per­ cent, is uranium-238, and unburnable like the wet wood. The breeder can transform this into a combustible (fis­ sile) material, plutonium-239. This means that if known reserves of ura­ Courtesy of the French Nuclear Attache, Washington, D.C. nium represent the equivalent of 40 years of the present world electricity consumption, then breeder reactors, World's Largest Breeder in theory, could make those same re­ serves last 140 times longer because Comes on Line uranium-238 is 140 times more abun­ dant than uranium-235. by Laurent Rosenfeld This means that the breeder gives us 5,600 years of power reserves from The world's first industrial-size gigawatts-electric (GWe), is second in natural uranium. To put it the way Val- breeder, the 1,240 megawatt-electric the world (the United States is at 74 eryGiscardd'Estaingdid in 1980, when (MWe)Superphenix in Creys-Malville, GW; Soviet Union, 24 GW; Japan, 22.6 he was still President of France, the France, began supplying power to the GW; West Germany, 16.1 GW; and relatively small uranium reserves of grid Jan. 14. The reactor went critical United Kingdom, 12.3 GW), France is France represent more energy than "all Sept. 7,1985, and after numerous tests number one in terms of the total por­ of the oil deposits in the entire Middle the fast breeder progressively in­ tion of its electricity coming from nu­ East." creased its power, producing enough clear power. Superphenix is not the first fast steam to drive one of the plant's two The French utility company, Electri- breeder ever built, but it is the world's turbines. cite de France (EDF), is now operating only industrial-scale breeder. In fact, Although it delivered its first kilo­ about 50 nuclear power plants. During the first nuclear reactor ever to pro­ watt hours to the French power grid 1985, about 65 percent of the electric­ duce power in 1951, the U.S. EBR-1 in Jan. 14, tests will continue for several ity produced in France was nuclear, Idaho, was a breeder. Since then, months before Superphenix is sched­ with a peak level of 70 percent last Au­ however, breeder programs have been uled to reach its nominal power of 1,240 gust. No industrial country of similar slowed down to a crawl in most coun­ MWe in mid-1986. or larger size reaches half this figure. tries, except France and, to a lesser ex­ Without doubt, France has the nu­ The Fast Breeder Bonanza tent, the Soviet Union. clear lead worldwide. Although the The Superphenix is a liquid-metal- After having built several small re­ overall French nuclear power capacity, cooled fast breeder: it produces more search fast breeder reactors—includ­ with an installed power of roughly 38 fuel than it consumes. ing Harmonie, Masurca, Cabri, and

10 May-June 1986 FUSION Nuclear Report Rapsodie—the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) built the 250-MWe Phenix reactor in Marcoule. Phenix produced its first kilowatt hour of elec­ tricity in December 1973 and reached full power in March 1974. It was then the largest breeder in the world, and remained so until the Soviets built the 600-MW BN600 in Beloyarsk in 1980. Superphenix was constructed in re­ cord time—7 years, less than half the time it now takes the United States to put a conventional nuclear plant on line. The construction company, NER- SA, was especially set up for that pur­ pose. Its shares are divided among the French utility EDF (51 percent), the Ital­ ian ENEL (33 percent), and a consor­ tium of the German RWE and the Bel­ gian, Dutch, and British utilities SBK J.J. Nerbonne (16 percent). Taipower chairman L.K. Chen: "If we don't start soon on the fourth nuclear Conventional Versus Beeder construction, we'll see a power shortage by 1990. " Above, Taipower's third nu­ Any nuclear reactor is based on a clear plant. chain reaction. A neutron is used to hit a uranium nucleus and either bounces off, is captured, or splits the nucleus. Taiwan's Fight to Go Nuclear When the nucleus splits (fissions), it breaks into two fragments and releas­ by Joseph J. Nerbonne es two or three neutrons, which, in turn, can hit other nuclei, producing Joseph Nerbonne, a former corre­ operation, McGettigan replied: "It the chain reaction. spondent for the Associated Press and doesn't take too much imagination to These fission-produced neutrons, a longtime resident of Taiwan, reports envisage this place going the way of so-called fast neutrons, are emitted here on the current battle against the the States—which is backwards. Tai­ with an energy of 1 to 2 megavolts, cor­ environmentalists. wan at the present time can build a responding to a velocity of 15,000 to nuclear power station in about 6 years 20,000 kilometers per second. These "The Taiwan government has defi­ while in the United States, the same fast neutrons are usually rather ineffi­ nitely decided not to build its fourth plant will take 15 years to construct. cient in triggering new fissions in ura- nuclear station," according to J.J. Although the Republic of China's nium-235 because they bounce off the McGettigan, senior project engineer legislature approved construction of a uranium nuclei without splitting them. for the power generation service divi­ fourth nuclear power plant as early as In fact, a slow neutron has 460 more sion of Westinghouse Electric Corpo­ 1980, it took until the present time to chances of fissioning a U-235 nucleus ration, which has sold many compo­ complete all preliminaries, like site lo­ than a fast neutron. Therefore, in a nents to the Taiwan Power Company's cation and funding. Then, out of the conventional nuclear reactor, a mod­ (Taipower) three nuclear plants. blue, for the first time, a vocal oppo­ erator, consisting of light nuclei like In an interview in December 1985, sition, or at least a number of ques­ water or graphite, is used to slow the McGettigan attributed the decision to tioning scientists plus 61 legislators, neutrons down to velocities of about 2 "public pressure." asked what was the economic value of kilometers per second, a speed rough­ "My original 10-day trip has now yet another nuclear plant, and de­ ly equivalent to the thermal agitation grown to40days. I've been readingthe manded precise details concerning of the atoms of the moderator. These local papers as well as talking to power safety factors, nuclear waste disposal, slow neutrons are then called thermal company officials, and it certainly and environmental pollution. neutrons, because they have reached seems that the government is bowing Premier Yu Kuo-hwa then said there thermal equilibrium with the medium. to public pressure, which for the very was no hurry to start building the fourth The problem with using slow neu­ first time looks as though it's against nuclear plant. He ordered a temporary trons is that most of the light nuclei any more nuclear power plants on the halt to the bidding and construction used as moderators can also capture island." plans and ordered Taipower to com­ neutrons, making criticality—the chain When this reporter noted that in his municate with the public and convince reaction—not so easy to obtain. Only many years in Taiwan he could not re­ them that their misgivings were mis­ heavy water and graphite, of the var- call any vocal opposition to the other guided. At the same time, Premier Yu Continued on page 62 three nuclear power plants now in full went on record as a supporter of the

Nuclear Report FUSION May-June 1986 11 fourth plant, saying there was not the over the years there has been a rash of ernment's attitude is that it has to be "shadow of a doubt in his mind" re­ stories in the press citing ecological built—the problem is the timing, that garding the necessity of building an­ problems here and all over the world is, getting the maximum benefit out of other nuclear plant on the island. and this has stirred up some opposi­ it," Chu added. In addition to Taiwan, Yu noted, tion. Then we found ourselves with a L.K. Chen, chairman of the sur­ some 30 other countries have built 320 new group, the environmentalists who prised Taipower—which has built nuclear reactors that are now furnish­ worry about and oppose anything and scores of coal and oil-powered units, ing power for themselves while anoth­ everything from fish in the sea to the not to mention hydro and nuclear er 195 are under construction. The Re­ disposal of nuclear fuel, and then we plants, without a question being public of Korea, Yu pointed out, now got a little flak from our own legisla­ raised—stepped into the heated dis­ has four nuclear stations operating with ture. ... I think it was all engineered cussion with the statement: "The Re­ five more under construction. "Fur­ by the newspapers." public of China is not the United States thermore, long-range computer pro­ "For almost two years, Taiwan had a and the decision of American power jection forecasts that Taiwan will begin negative growth rate but in the 1970s companies not to build any more nu­ to feel a power shortage by 1989 if no we built many power plants all over the clear power plants does not apply new power projects are completed be­ island, and we here at Taipower know here." fore that time." that if we don't start soon on the fourth Chen was commenting on a remark The Media and the Ecology nuclear construction we'll see a power made by W.S. White, Jr., chairman of As if to assuage mounting public op­ shortage by 1990. Present installed ca­ the American Electric Power Compa­ position, the Atomic Energy Council pacity is 14,000 megawatts and our peak ny, that "In time, one will see nuclear here reported that after a 10-year eco­ demand last summer was 9,000, so we plants again being built but not for a logical study along the northern coast, have 5,000 MW in reserve." long time, possibly not before the year the two nuclear power plants in north­ Nuclear installed capacity at the 2000." ern Taiwan have had no observable ef­ present time is about 37 percent of the Chen noted that: "The United States fect on the ecology of that coast. total, but 50 percent of the kilowatt is endowed with rich natural re­ Taiwan Power's vice-president, hours used. sources. It enjoys the luxury of choos­ l-hsien Chu, said in an interview: "One "Our prediction for this shortage is ing coal, water, or nuclear energy, really couldn't say that there's been an based on a 6 percent power demand while Taiwan has neither enough coal organized campaign against nuclear growth rate, so our reserve power will or water to employ. What is left for power plants on Taiwan, but rather all be consumed before long. The gov­ Taiwan but nuclear energy?"

U.S. Nuclear: Moving Backwards

How has the United States slipped so sharply back­ "We tried to sell those two units ... to mainland China wards in nuclear power? Westinghouse senior project but found they have no intention of investing in nuclear engineer McCettigan put it this way: "Power companies plants. . . . It's a question of employment there and they in the United States have to put their money up front to have a lot of people digging out fossil fuel. Since pollu­ purchase the turbine generators and other components tion controls are lax, they don't have to worry about and they have to pay interest on the loans, and then conservationist groups protesting air pollution from sul­ when legal costs of groups like Jane Fonda's are added fur dioxide." on, the cost of a new nuclear plant quadruples. McCettigan stressed the economics of going nuclear: "Plants costing from $1 billion to $2 billion will effec­ "If we assume that the cost of power for a nuclear plant tively double in cost because of legalities and that's why is one; the cost for the same amount of power from a no plants are being built today." In addition, he said, coal plant would be 15, and for an oil-fired plant it would "The amount of money tied up and being paid in interest be somewhere between 25 and 30. It's something like to banks is really astronomical—an out-and-out aberra­ the razor blade company which is only too happy to give tion." you the razor free because it knows that you have to "Things have gotten so discouraging that a very ag­ come back and buy its blades." gressive and active Virginia Electric Power Company Westinghouse is currently concentrating on improv­ (VEPCO) just chose not to fight and ordered us [West­ ing efficiency, he said. For example, in Fawley, Ala., where inghouse Electric Corporation] to scrap two units we had the nuclear power plant was considered to be the most recently completed building. efficient in world, Westinghouse gave them a new de­ "Both are now being destroyed and we're talking of a sign for the nozzle block and rotation and stationary loss of anywhere from $40 to $100 million. blade paths. "We upped their efficiency by 2 to 3 per­ "We'll have to sell them as scrap and it hurts to see it, cent," McGettigan said. "If the income from the plant is I can tell you that. VEPCO just decided 'to hell with say $1 million a day, the 2 to 3 percent increase would be it.' considerable, you can easily see."

12 May-June 1986 FUSION Nuclear Report Washington Report

AMPUTATING AMERICA'S FUTURE TECHNOLOGY: The Reagan Administration Fusion Budget by Charles B. Stevens

The manifestly inadequate fiscal year pears to be a linear extrapolation of sion research, are shown in Figure 1 1987 fusion research budget request of previous real cuts implemented since (solid line), converted to constant 1977 the Reagan administration, if passed the Carter administration in 1976, the dollars. The dotted line plots the pro­ by Congress, will undermine any pros­ cumulative impact has reached a point jections made by the government in pect for a successful ^industrializa­ where the scientific base of this essen­ 1976 for the budget necessary to real­ tion of U.S. economy over the coming tial program is endangered. The fur­ ize commercial fusion electric power decades. More immediately, it will ther cuts mandated under Gramm- plants by the year 2005. sabotage Reagan's own Strategic De­ Rudman will intensify this process. As can be seen, the actual budget is fense Initiative (SDI) project for devel­ The actual appropriations from 1976 now at about one third the level need­ oping effective missile defenses. to 1986, together with the fiscal year ed for fusion energy development, by Although the proposed budget ap­ 1987 Reagan request for magnetic fu­ the government's 1976 projections. In

Figure 1 FUSION BUDGET VERSUS REQUIREMENTS FOR FUSION DEVELOPMENT The actual fusion appropriations from 1976 to 1986 (heavy line) are shown, in addition to President Rea­ gan's proposed budget for fiscal year 1987. The Rea­ gan budget, as can be seen, sinks significantly lower than the Carter administration's budget. More star­ tling is the comparison of the actual funding with that projected in 1976 (thin line) by the U.S. Energy Re­ search and Development Agency, the predecessor to the Department of Energy, for the achievement of commercial fusion by the year 2005.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory The huge magnet of the MFTF as it was being moved from its fabrication site to the experimental building. Deferring the Future? After eight years of planning and construction and $350 million, the magnetic mirror fusion program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will close down. According to the program's assistant associate director, Keith Thomassen, the proposed 1987 budg­ et would have cut the allocations for the program by 34 percent, and Gramm-Rudman was expected to cut it further. When Fusion questioned the lab, a spokeman said the administration's reasoning in cutting this area of reseach was that because oil prices are falling, there is no energy crisis, and therefore we can defer invest­ ments in fusion power.

Washington Report FUSION May-June 1986 13 fact, the proposed 1987 budget will be­ Ironically, the U.S. fusion program cial prototypes could still be achieved gin to substantially cut into the scien­ has been able to meet—and in many before the year 2000. tific base of the fusion program as cases substantially exceed—all of the A detailed review of the fiscal year funding descends to levels below those scientific goals projected in the 1976 1987 budget request demonstrates that of 1976. government study. As Figure 2 shows, this potential is being forfeited and that Whereas previous cuts have primar­ there has been consistent progress as substantial segments of the scientific ily undermined the technological fusion experiments have moved to­ base are being gutted. Table 1 gives a prospects of realizing the commercial ward meeting the physical parameters breakdown for the magnetic fusion potentials of fusion energy, the cur­ needed for fusion energy production. R&D program from fiscal year 1985 to rent round of cuts will destroy sub­ It is now likely that both the European fiscal year 1987 in current dollars. stantial portions of the program's sci­ JETtokamak and the U.S. light ion beam It should be noted that it is impossi­ entific base. Now the scientific muscle PBFA-II at Sandia will demonstrate the ble to give any comparable analysis for of the fusion program will be reduced conditions needed for substantial net the inertial confinement laser and par­ to a fraction of what it was in the mid- energy production—despite the fact ticle beam pellet fusion R&D effort be­ 1970s. This is especially the case, given that neither device was originally de­ cause this program was not even given the fact that the government-calculat­ signed to attain this goal. a separate budget line in the current ed inflation rates are generally much As the budget has decreased, the request. The detailed figures for this too low, particularly for scientific economic stakes have increased. In re­ program will not be released until and R&D. cent years, studies of fusion's eco­ if the various directors of the U.S. na­ This disaster is exacerbated by the nomic potential—such as those car­ tional laboratories—Los Alamos, San­ actual distribution of the remaining re­ ried out under the direction of Dr. John dia, and Lawrence Livermore—decide sources of the program. To an accoun­ Nuckolls of Lawrence Livermore Na­ to make them available. In fiscal year tant it would appear far more rational tional Laboratory—have shown that 1986, the Reagan administration had to maintain a large, capital-intensive current economic potential for fusion proposed a zero budget for inertial experimental facility then to fund a di­ energy is far greater than that original­ confinement. versity of smaller efforts with higher ly projected in the mid-1970s. Accord­ The major subsectors of the mag­ per scientist operating costs. ing to one 1983 study, fusion has the netic fusion energy program shown in But the direct result of this accoun­ potential of producing electrical en­ Tablel are: (1) applied plasma physics, tant's reasoning is that the proposed ergy for as little as half the cost of cur­ which covers both small fusion exper­ budget cuts will wipe out large areas rent and future nuclear fission and fos­ iments and the university-based pro­ of basic fusion and plasma research. sil fuel power systems, and commer­ grams; (2) confinement systems, which consists of the large experiments; (3) development and technology, which provides the technology base for com­ mercial reactor construction; and (4) planning and projects, which oversees the design and construction of the next major phases of the magnetic fusion program, such as the construction of engineering and prototype fusion re­ actors. Phasing Out the Future As shown in the table, planning and projects—that is, the future develop­ ment of the program—is all but phased out. The budget request notes that it is hoped that "international collabo­ ration" will lead to some kind of future development, a myth fostered by for­ mer presidential science advisor George Keyworth, azero-growther. In the applied plasma physics divi­ Figure 2 sion, which covers a substantial por­ PROGRESS IN ACHIEVING CONDITIONS REQUIRED tion of the scientific base of the fusion FOR FUSION POWER effort, it is not immediately apparent While the fusion budget has been steadily eroded, the major fusion ex­ that major cuts are being implement­ periments have proceeded to make more than the expected progress to­ ed. The further budget detail (Table 2), ward the goal of net energy production. however, shows that broad areas, such as experimental research operations, are being decimated, with a 50 percent

Washington Report The first generation X-ray system could Table 1 destroy upwards of a score or more FISCAL YEAR 1987 BUDGET REQUEST ICBMs per X-ray nuclear explosive. Re­ FOR MAGNETIC FUSION ENERGY cent, basic science advances indicate that this capability could be vastly in­ FY 1985 FY 1986 FY 1987 Request vs creased to a point where one X-ray nu­ Appropriation Appropriation Request 1987 Base clear explosive could take out the en­ tire Soviet ICBM fleet. And the X-ray laser is just the first of an entire family Applied plasma physics of new types of directed energy sys­ Operating expenses $ 78,937 $ 69,692 $ 70,700 $ + 1,008 tems made possible by the high energy Capital equipment 3,170 5,619 4,500 _ - 1,119 Subtotal 82,107 75,311 75,200 - 111 densities of fusion. Confinement systems Currently, U.S. researchers can ac­ Operating expenses 206,395 188,650 177,500 -11,150 cess these high energy densities only Capital equipment 15,400 14,529 7,100 7,429 Subtotal 221,795 203,179 184,600 -18,579 with expensive nuclear weapons tests, Development and technology which greatly hinders the develop­ Operating expenses 67,900 57,059 50,510 - 6,549 ment and perfection of new possibili­ Capital equipment 5,100 4,330 1,890 _ - 2,440 ties, like the gamma ray laser, as well Subtotal 73,000 61,389 52,400 - 8,989 as the existing X-ray laser. An econom­ Planning and projects Operating expenses 12,201 5,528 4,780 - 748 ical alternative is to use laboratory in- Capital equipment 3,800 3,801 3,820 + 19 ertial confinement fusion, like that Construction 32,500 12,653 8,200 _ - 4,453 produced by laser or particle beams. Subtotal 48,501 21,982 16,800 - 5,182 Inertial confinement fusion in the lab­ Program direction oratory, in fact, can attain even higher Operating expenses 4,150 3,608 4,000 + 392 energy densities than those generated Subtotal 4,150 3,608 4,000 + 392 Total in thermonuclear weapons. Operating expenses 369,583 324,537 307,490 -17,047 Recent intelligence reports from the Capital equipment 27,470 28,279 17,310 -10,969 Soviet Union indicate that under the Construction 32,500 12,653 8,200 - 4,453 Magnetic Fusion Energy $429,553 $365,469 $333,000 $ - 32,469 direction of Academician E. Velikhov, Soviet scientists have succeeded in combining magnetic fusion with iner­ tial confinement to obtain significant fusion plasmas on a laboratory scale, cut over two years. daily been a breeding ground for in­- It is reported that compact tori mag- Although it would appear that the novation in science and technologyinology.. netic plasmas have been injected into confinement systems portion of mag­ The proposed fiscal year 1987 fusiofusion metal cylinders that are then implod- netic fusion R&D—which has consist­ budget will significantly curtairtaill any ed—the approach generically known ed of two main lines of approach, the such future contributions. as the imploding metal liner. This corn- linear tandem mirror and toroidal sys­ Some measure of the resultinting stra-­ bined magnetic-inertial approach ap- tems like the tokamak—is at least being tegic loss to U.S. national securitjritymay mayy pears to be the technologically most maintained near the same levels, the be judged by this example: accessible means for laboratory gen- actual budget proposal states that "to The most potent missile defense eration of fusion plasmas. Is the United accommodate present fiscal con­ weapon yet developed is thait of ththe States researching this area of fusion straints, further research on tandem nuclear explosive pumped X-raray laser. Continued on page 27 mirrors is being deferred. . . ." The result is that the world's largest fusion experiment, the nearly com­ Table 2 pleted MFTF-B at Lawrence Livermore BUDGET BREAKDOWN IN APPLIED PLASMA PHYSICS National Laboratory, "will be moth- balled." In other words, qualitatively half of the magnetic fusion confine­ FY 1985 FY 1986 FY 1987 request ment systems will be cut. Cutting National Security The U.S. fusion R&D program has Experimental research operations $21,501 $14,413 $12,455 demonstrably provided the lion's share Fusion theory program $22,644 $19,046 $17,500 of the technology, science, and per­ Basic experimental plasma research $16,024 $14,866 $13,215 sonnel for the Strategic Defense Initi­ ative (SDI) to make offensive nuclear The cuts in these scientist-intensive areas will be devastating. missiles obsolete. Because of its broad scope, the fusion program has espe-

Washington Report FUSION May-June 1986 15 Who's Out to Destroy NASA? by Carol White

While the Soviets launched their he came undercriminal indictment for bied for six months to get Graham ap­ space station and sent two astronauts malfeasance that allegedly occurred pointed as deputy director to fill the into orbit, the U.S. press continued to with defense contracts when he was a vacancy left by Hans Mark, who had manufacture a scandal of massive pro­ vice president at General Dynamics. left the agency to become chancellor portions against the U.S. National The charges against Beggs are so flimsy of Texas University. Space and Aeronautics Administra­ and unlikely to hold up in court, that NASA resisted the White House tion. one must conclude that someone was pressure for several months on the ba­ Every NASA decision made over the trying to use anything in order to force sis that more qualified candidates were past several years is being second Beggs to leave NASA. available, and that Graham was not guessed, and the media is using all its The question here is, who in the Jus­ qualified to assume the responsibility persuasive power to try to turn the tice Department was responsible for of second in command. Graham's past American public against the space pro­ pushing through this indictment and experience had been as a defense con­ gram. While every conceivable scan­ why? Indeed, one special agent of the sultant on questions related to arms dal is being dredged up, the real scan­ Justice Department, Gary Black, ap­ control, and he was something of an dal is being covered up. The Presiden­ pears to have been replaced after he expert on the question of how electro­ tial commission has not asked: Why magnetic pulses affect missile launch­ was a manifestly incompetent person es. He did not have experience as a top for the job, William Graham, made act­ administrator, nor was he an expert on ing administrator of NASA, and who questions regarding the space pro­ put him there? The Questions gram. He was, however, an active Other questions that must be asked member of the California Republican concern the Shuttle disaster itself: That Must Be Asked Party, whose patronage machine was where was William Graham when the pushing for his appointment. decisions were being made, and what Why was a manifestly in­ Within days after Graham became was his input into the decision-making competent person for the deputy director of NASA, James Beggs process? was forced to take a leave of absence Whether or not the accident was re­ job, William Graham, made as administrator because of the indict­ lated to the extreme cold, it was a mis­ acting administrator of ment against him. Graham was then take to fly the Shuttle under abnormal NASA, and who put him made acting director of the agency. From the minute that he stepped into weather conditions. Why was such a there? Where was William mistake made? It is interesting, but not Beggs's shoes, he made it clear to significant, that there was dissension Graham when the decisions everyone concerned that he was there among the engineering personnel were being made, and what to clean out the "old boys." He was so working for NASA contractors as to was his input into the deci­ abrasive that it was feared that many of whether to fly. It is obvious, but un­ the most qualified top management of important, that it would have been a sion-making process? the agency would be driven to resign. plus for the President if he could have What Graham Did delivered his State of the Union speech If the Shuttle accident had not oc­ with the Shuttle flying. curred, it seems certain that the Gra­ The Shuttle may or may not have had ham appointment would have still re­ some close shaves on earlier flights, recommended against such prosecu­ sulted in the erosion of NASA's perfor­ but the fact remains that it had an ex­ tion of Beggs in early 1985. mance, only more slowly. For exam­ cellent safety record—until Jan. 28, Surely a decision as serious as that ple, Graham began to remove quali­ 1986, two months after Graham as­ involved in forcing the head of NASA fied staff from their posts: In February, sumed responsibility for the agency. out of a position of key importance to Beggs's assistant Phil Culbertson was This can be attributed to the extra edge national security and the Strategic De­ "relieved of his responsibilities" as given to the program by the exception­ fense Initiative would have had to in­ general manager of NASA. al quality of leadership offered by volve Attorney General Meese. If there was a problem in the deci­ lames Beggs, whose on-the-spot com­ Why the Graham Appointment? sion-making process that led to the ac­ mand decisions provided the neces­ The replacement of Beggs by Gra­ cident, if indeed the flow of informa­ sary margin between mission success ham thus becomes particularly signif­ tion to the senior officials of NASA was and tragic failure. icant. Graham's appointment was inhibited, one reason for this could be Who Got Rid of Beggs? forced through by White House circles the lack of confidence in Graham al­ Yet James Beggs was forced out of despite opposition at NASA. The White ready felt by NASA staff. In an agency his position in December 1985, when House patronage machine had lob­ known for its "open door" policy, Gra-

16 May-June 1986 FUSION Washington Report ham walled himself off from the staff. An organization like NASA is like a mil­ itary unit: It depends upon the high morale of its "troops" for that edge in performance, which up to Jan. 28 had guaranteed its excellent record. Where was Graham during the final review before that Shuttle launch? James Beggs or his representative Hans Mark had always been present at that final review. Had Beggs remained in command, it is likely that he would not have allowed the flight to proceed, merely because the subfreezing weather of the previous night might be expected to have unpredictable con­ sequences. But Graham did not participate in the final review before the launch. He had gone down to the launch site on the Saturday before the originally sched­ uled Sunday launch, Jan. 26, and he postponed that launch, reportedly over staff objections. His presence was so abrasive and confidence in his judg­ ment was so minimal, that rumor had it then that he was mainly concerned that the Shuttle not interfer with that Sunday's Superbowl. The Future of NASA It is clear that many of the Shuttle NASA "To meet the modest goals the President has layed out—continuing the Shuttle systems were more marginal than we program and building a manned space station—requires ending the irrational would like because of budget con­ approach to economics that has dictated that the space program must be 'cost- straints on NASA. But if we are to have effective.'" Above, NASA's Moon landing. a space program, then some risks are inevitable. Every Shuttle flight con­ tains an apreciable amount of risk. The question iswhethersuch risksare nec­ essary and whether the payoff is suffi­ cient to warrant taking them. On Jan. Cost-Accounting: 28, President Reagan expressed the spirit of the nation when he answered Slow, But Sure Death to NASA both questions affirmatively. Now we are told that there will be at by Marsha Freeman least a year's delay in the next Shuttle flight. In fact, Graham told Congress The most dangerous enemy NASA NASA's Apollo program should be that the solid rocket boosters will need has is the anti-Hamiltonian economics enough to convince any reasonable, to be completely redesigned and its of both the liberal and conservative va­ thinking citizen that a crash program flight schedule sharply reduced. riety. The former insists on spending in the frontier technologies of space is Hopefully we can assume that when no money except on social welfare here a good investment. Even by the con­ James Fletcher takes control of NASA, on Earth, while the latter insists on servative estimate of Chase Economet­ the program will regain its momen­ "privatizing" space exploration and rics, the Apollo program put back $14 tum. Clearly we must not only replace development. The end result of both into the economy for every dollar the destroyed orbiter, but we must philosophies is the same: no aggres­ spent. At the height of the Moon pro­ build the fifth orbiter originally planned sive space program and no commit­ gram in 1965, NASA was introducing to complete the fleet. ment to developing the advanced 6,000 new technologies per month to We cannot become a nation that re­ technologies that could gear up U.S. private industry and agriculture, spur­ fuses to take risks. Otherwise we will production and move the economy out ring the only period of real industrial cede the exploration of space to the of the depression. growth and productivity increase the Soviets and abort our own destiny A quick course in the economics of country has seen since World War II. Washington Report FUSION May-June 1986 17 Computers and electronics, new much out of concern for international Leading the free-enterprise faction materials, remote sensing for agricul­ cooperation, but to more closely ap­ is the Heritage Foundation, based in ture, and medical devices from the in­ proximate the station that NASA will Washington, D.C. Heritage spokes­ tensive care monitoring systems to the not get the money to build. man Milton Copulos stated categori­ artificial heart all got their start from The same kind of penny-pinching has cally on television after the Jan. 28 dis­ NASA. degraded the Shuttle program. aster that the "private sector" should Cost-Accounting Throughout the program's develop­ build a Shuttle orbiter—if it were de­ Although President Reagan himself ment, NASA was forced to make many termined to be a good investment, that took a strong stand for continuing the kinds of design and technology deci­ is. Copulos's palaver about private in­ space program and committed the na­ sions based on the cost-accounting vestment is simply a cover story for tion to building an operational space criterion. Even safety-related improve­ cutting the NASA budget with impun­ station within a decade, his economic ments that had been planned for the ity. policies—from the Cramm-Rudman Shuttle system have been cut out of The Heritage Plan to Shut Down NASA across-the-board cuts to the idea that the budget in the past five years. In its recent budget document, private enterprise can do it—ensure The past six years of the space pro­ "Slashing the Deficit: Fiscal '87: A Pro­ that this commitment cannot be met. gram in fact, have amply proven— posal by the Staff of the Heritage Foun­ From 1965 to the beginning of the contrary to tightly held beliefs about dation for the Budget of the U.S. Gov­ Reagan administration, funding for the "magic of the marketplace" and the ernment," Copulos calls for paring the NASA had been falling in constant dol­ responsibilities of private enterprise to Shuttle budget by $500 million and be­ lars. NASA administrator James Beggs, finance research and development ef­ ginning the privatization of NASA. coming to head the agency from in­ forts—that only the federal govern­ "There is now a real danger that fur­ dustry, was able to secure the Presi­ ment, representing both the re­ ther subsidy and monopolization ac­ dent's promise that the NASA budget sources and interests of the entire na­ tivities by NASA will stifle private sec­ would increase by at least 1 percent tion, can push forward the frontiers of tor participation" in space, Copulos each year in real dollars, despite the basic science and create the capabili­ writes in the document. "The federal strenuous objections of the Office of ties for their commercial application in government should move immediate­ Management and Budget. industry. ly to cancel its plans to construct a fifth But this year, under the first round Cost Vs. Launch Frequency Shuttle with taxpayer money. Instead, of Cramm-Rudman cuts, NASA lost The obsession that Shuttle missions "a thorough strategy for privatization more than $200 million from its budg­ should "pay for themselves" has led to of commercial space activity is neces­ et, and at the same time the agency has a situation where increases in the price sary. Eventually all commercial space- had to cope with the loss of a crew and NASA charges commercial customers launching services should be handled orbiter. The administration's fiscal year have made it more difficult for the by private firms." 1987 request for space cuts NASA's United States to compete with the gov­ According to NASA, private consor­ budget by 3.5 percent in real dollars. ernment-subsidized European Ariane tia have tried and failed, over the past The funding request made by NASA reusable rocket. This has put pressure years, to raise the money needed to for next year's work on the space sta­ on NASA to fill its payload with as many build a Shuttle orbiter. tion was about $580 million. The agen­ paying customers as possible, to bring What Do We Need in Space cy is now budgeted for this at a level of more money into the federal Treasury. To meet the modest goals the Presi­ $410 million, although the OMB had The frequency of Shuttle launches dent has layed out—continuing the proposed a grand total of only $100 largely determines the cost of each Shuttle program and building a million for the program next year. launch. According to NASA, the cost manned space station—requires Instead of defining the space station of each Shuttle mission, if four are scrapping the budget proposal that the program by its projected capabilities, flown per year, is $350 million per flight. administration has submitted to Con­ the major concern has been to limit Doubling the flight rate to eight per gress for next year and ending the ir­ the amount of money spent. When year brings the cost down to $197 mil­ rational approach to economics that President Nixon announced the Space lion each. At the projected future NASA for 15 years has dictated that the space Shuttle program in 1972, he gave NASA rate of 24 launches annually, each mis­ program must be "cost-effective." a limit of $5.2 billion for its develop­ sion will cost $91 million. The point is, that given the nation's ment, about one-quarter of what the The pressure to bring the cost per future, a crash program in space is not Apollo program cost. launch down has been too much of a only cost-effective in the broad sense, NASA has been given $8 billion as a factor in determining what the num­ but also the only way to rejuvenate the ballpark estimate of what this project ber of missions per year should be. crippled U.S. economy. can cost, and it has to make the design Ironically, the same media and As Alexander Hamilton prescribed and operation decisions within that spokesmen who criticize NASA for in the early years of the nation, the constraint. having a too ambitious launch sched­ government must take the lead in Western Europe, Japan, and Canada ule, which they claim led to the Chal­ building the infrastructure and great have been invited to participate by lenger loss, are equally critical of the projects in scientific advancement to contributing major modules to be cost of the system, which is largely de­ ensure that there will be plenty of room added to the basic structure, not so termined by launch frequency. for industry to grow.

18 May-June 1986 FUSION Washington Report Beam Technology Report

Los Alamos 'Trailmaster' Drives for Fusion

by Charles B. Stevens

Los Alamos National Laboratory an­ conventional capacitor bank systems energy density has unlocked the lim­ nounced in early 1986 that the first stage to vastly improve the range of high en­ itless energy potentials of the atomic of its "Trailmaster" electrical pulsed- ergy accessible to university labora­ nucleus. power program had been successfully tory facilities working on fusion plas­ In recent decades the quest to real­ completed. According to the Trailmas­ mas, particle accelerators, and lasers. ize thermonuclear fusion reactions has ter program manager, Dr. Charles Fen- In other words, the Trailmaster pro­ led to the exploration of plasmas. Plas­ stermacher, this new technology could gram could lead to a general revolu­ mas represent a fourth state of mat­ provide an extremely economical, tion in pulsed power and high energy ter—solid, liquid, and gas being the quickly assembled, and highly versa­ research and development. first three. When matter is raised to a tile means of experimentally exploring The Technology of High Energy Density sufficiently high temperature, its at­ a wide range of high energy dense pro­ Throughout history, high energy oms break up into negatively charged cesses, such as ignition of thermonu­ density has determined the frontiers electrons and positively charged ions. clear fusion reactions, creation of X- of science and economic progress. The Because these constituents, electrons ray lasers, and laboratory-scale simu­ higher energy density of steam en­ and ions, are electrically charged— lation of nuclear weapons effects. gines provided the means for reaping unlike the relatively neutral atoms of Currently, high energy, pulsed- the bounty of deep-lying coal and min­ an ordinary gas—plasmas are domi­ power systems, like the 100-trillion- eral deposits and harnessing metal- nated by electric forces and the mag­ watt Particle Beam Fusion Accelerator forming machines. In this century, high netic fields generated by the relative II (PBFA-II) light ion facility at Sandia National Laboratories and the 100-tril- lion-watt Nova laser fusion facility at Lawrence Livermore National Labora­ tory, cost from $50 to $170 million dol­ lars and take many years to design and construct. Trailmasters, specifically tailored to explore a particular high energy density regime, could be de­ signed and built in a few months at a cost of a few tens of thousands of dol­ lars per experiment. The Trailmaster converts the cheap energy of chemical explosives into Figure 1 compressed, high-power pulses of SCHEMATIC OF TRAILMASTER LAYOUT electrical energy. The key to the sys­ Trailmaster was conceived as a method to convert the cheap chemical tem is an electric circuit "opening energy of high explosives (HE) into compressed, high-power pulses using switch," which makes it possible to storage and switching (which compresses the pulse width to tens of na­ compress the current as much as 500- noseconds) to amplify the pulse 100-fold. This generates an intense burst fold in time and space. In this way a of X-rays that could be used to ignite inertial fusion or to pump X-ray lasers. billion-watt electric pulse can be am­ A small electric current derived from a capacitor bank is switched into plified to a 100-trillion-watt power lev­ the magnetic coils of the helical generator. The detonator then sets off el. The electric pulse can then be tai­ high explosives surrounding the generator. The resulting compression of lored to drive a myriad high power de­ the magnetic field converts the chemical energy released to an increased vices, such as X-ray lasers and nuclear electrical current in the generator's imploding coils. The result is a greatly fusion reactors. amplified electrical pulse that passes through the coaxial generator and The switching science and technol­ into the storage inductor. From here it is switched out and compressed, ogy being developed at Los Alamos, amplifying it. Finally, the pulse is directed onto a cylindrical foil, which however, is applicable to a wide range causes the foil to implode and produce a high-temperature plasma that of other pulsed-power systems. For generates an intense burst of X-rays. example, the Trailmaster switching technology could be utilized in more

Beam Technology Report FUSION May-June 1986 19 Figure 2 LAYOUT OF PIONEER I EXPERIMENT The Pioneer I foil implosion system, which succeeded in meeting the program's objectives in a series of five experiments.

Los Alamos National Laboratory

motion of charged particles. therefore large magnetic fields are Trailmaster program is using such Actually, the conventional states of present together with substantial fluid plasma switches to compress electric matter found within the Earth's bio­ motion of the plasma itself, all of these currents many hundred times. sphere are quite rare in the cosmos at different forces or "energy flows" line The Trailmaster Configuration large. Most matter in the universe, like up in parallel spirals so that they do not Figure 1 shows a circuit diagram of the Sun and other stars, is in the plas­ interact. the Trailmaster and Figure 2 shows the ma state. This so-called Beltrami-type, force- experimental setup. The process be­ Plasmas and Switches free plasma configuration is quite sim­ gins by storing an ordinary power level In the quest for higher energy dens­ ilar in geometry to that seen in some current pulse in the magnetic coil. ities, the plasma state offers virtually superconductors, with the distinction Chemical explosives surrounding this unlimited possibilities, because plas­ that the plasma must be sustained at coil, and carefully configured into im­ mas are held together by macroscopic millions of degrees Celsius and the su­ plosion lenses, are then detonated. The electric and magnetic fields, while or­ perconductor at near absolute zero implosion lenses compress the coil and dinary matter is characterized by lim­ temperatures. In both cases the force- its magnetic field. The degree of en­ ited chemical bonds. Intense electric free, Beltrami configuration conducts ergy densification is simply given by and magnetic fields that would destroy electric currents with virtually no resis­ the volume of compression achieved. the chemical bonds—and therefore tance. This implosion process compresses integrity—of ordinary materials can Under the right boundary condi­ the electric current that is generating improve the integrity of plasma config­ tions, however—such as too high a the magnetic field in the coil, and in urations. level of electric current or a change in the process converts the explosive en­ Besides withstanding much larger the macroscopic geometry of the plas­ ergy into electric energy. The result is concentrations of energy, such as in­ ma vortex sheet, the individual vor­ a surge of current—a current pulse in tense electric currents, plasmas also tices will unravel over extremely short the shape of a wave. By opening a can be rapidly transformed into entire­ time spans—lasting as little as a bil­ switch at the appropriate time, this ly new configurations. For example, a lionth of a second. The process is like current surge can be transferred to a plasma can proceed from a state in that of a laser. The unraveling of one new electric circuit. And by properly which it offers virtually no resistance vortex can set off the destruction of tuning the elements of the two circuits to the flow of electricity to one in which another and a chain reaction confla­ and having a sufficiently fast opening it suddenly becomes highly resistive. gration results. switch, the current surge can be com­ An example of this is the plasma fo­ With the sudden disappearance of pressed in the same manner as the cus research of Dr. Winston Bostick of the plasma channels, the electric cur­ ocean wave hitting a wall. the Stevens Institute of Technology in rent flow between the two metal elec­ The dynamics of the chemical explo­ New Jersey. In the plasma focus de­ trodes is rudely interrupted. The result sion and the geometry of the coil con­ vice, large electric currents are trans­ is like attempting to stop an ocean wave figuration limit the speed of compres­ ported between two metal electrodes with a simple vertical wall. When the sion that can be achieved in this man­ via a series of spiral plasmas. The spiral wave hits the wall, it compresses and ner. The time scale characteristic of an plasmas, or plasma vortices, look like grows greatly in amplitude, concen­ efficient conversion of explosive strings and are nested togetherto form trating its energy in the process. Simi­ chemical energy to electric current is a conducting surface between the larly, with the disruption of the plasma on the order of 250 microseconds, metal electrodes. The microstructure vortex channels, the electric current about one quarter of a thousandth of of these strings is force free. That is, pulse is compressed and grows rapidly a second. The switching out of this cur­ while extremely large electric currents in amplitude. rent surge into a second circuit further are flowing through the plasma, and One essential component of the compresses the current to a pulse last-

20 May-June 1986 FUSION Beam Technology Report ing about 500 nanoseconds (1 nano­ The Defense Department's Defense second is one-billionth of a second)— Nuclear Agency currently must test about a 500-fold compression or pow­ satellites and rockets against system- Now—eight pages of Science & Technology in every issue of the er amplification. generated electromagnetic pulse with one weekly that dares to name the The Front End expensive underground nuclear tests enemies of science: The final current surge and its wave that cost from $10 to $100 million. Trail- form—literally, the geometry of the master would provide a laboratory- wave—are essential parameters in the scale facility for such tests at costs in end use of the Trailmaster output. Be­ the range of tens of thousands of dol­ cause these characteristics can be lars. readily adjusted by changes in the cir­ The main approach currently being cuit tuning matchup, the Trailmaster pursued in inertial confinement laser makes an extremely versatile energy fusion research is that of X-ray driven driver for a wide variety of devices. implosion. Laser pulses are converted In its simplest form, the Trailmaster into X-rays, which then irradiate a small could be utilized to produce intense pellet of fusion fuel. The X-rays are ide­ bursts of X-rays, accomplished by a al for symmetrically and efficiently second implosion process. The cur­ burning off the outer layer of a fusion rent is passed through a small cylinder fuel pellet. This smooth "ablation" of made from a thin metal foil. The huge the target surface leads to precisely the current rapidly transforms the foil into type of even compression, or implo­ a cylinder of plasma. The intense mag­ sion, of the interior of the fuel pellet netic fields generated by the current to extreme densities needed for high- Executive simultaneously exert an inward force gain inertial fusion. The Trailmaster X- on the foil plasma, which leads to its ray burst produces the same type of Intelligence rapid implosion. Because the final smooth pellet implosions, without the compressed metal plasma reaches high need for an expensive laser. densities when the foil implosion ar­ Nonlinear Waveforms Review • E1R has just expanded from 64 to rives at the axis of the cylinder, most These immediate applications of 72 pages, to add an 8-page fea­ of the kinetic energy of the foil implo­ Trailmaster are only the beginning. The ture on the frontiers of science, sion and magnetic energy is converted Trailmaster converts an acoustic shock with emphasis on the "spin-offs" into heating the foil plasma to ex­ wave, generated by the chemical ex­ of the Strategic Defense Initia­ tive. tremely high temperatures. plosive lens, into an electric pulse in a • EIR alone publishes the facts on The result is a powerful, concentrat­ coil. The shape and parameters of the the international drug-runners, ed burst of X-rays produced by the hot, electric pulse can be tuned by both the terrorists, and "Green" networks dense metal plasma. This intense X-ray circuit and the explosive lens design. who are working to help Mos­ source can be utilized to create pow­ The geometry and characteristics of the cow in its plans for world domi­ nation. erful X-ray lasers or for ignition of ther­ resulting current waveforms are not Our information is based on an in­ monuclear fusion reactions. The X-rays just those of a simple sinusoidal wave; dependent worldwide network of can also be used directly to simulate a properly tailored waveform should correspondents committed to the the effects of nuclear weapons. (When be seen as something like a highly idea of scientific and technological progress. nuclear weapons detonate, the sud­ nonlinear soliton, or potential soliton. den burst of nuclear energy that they And just as the change in current in release generates a plasma "fireball" a plasma focus can lead to a dramatic whose chief energy output is in the change in the geometry and electrical form of intense X-rays.) properties of plasma vortices, the final When these X-rays irradiate satel­ Trailmaster current waveform can be lites, missiles, or other systems, they tuned to produce significantly differ­ generate electric currents along metal ent physical regimes in the front end surfaces. These currents, in turn, gen­ of the machine. For example, the erate electromagnetic waves on the in­ waveform can be tailored to drive spe­ terior of the satellite or rocket. This cially designed plasma pinches for fu­ process is called system-generated sion, or to generate charged particle electromagnetic pulse and can easily acceleration, or to tune the X-ray out­ destroy or at least disrupt the internal put of specially designed cylindrical electronic controls of these satellites foils. and missiles. Energy, as such, is not just simply The threat from system-generated scalar. Its intensity and geometry de­ electromagnetic pulse is extremely termine entirely different physical re- difficult to predict and protect against. Continued on page 62

Beam Technology Report FUSION May-june 1986 Research Report

ON THE FRONTIERS OF PHYSICS Galileo Proven Wrong! by Dr. Robert Moon and Carol White

For 300 years it has been an unchal­ lenged law of physics that gravitational and inertial mass are the same. Exper­ iments in the last 15 years, however, indicate that it is time to call this law into question. Johannes Kepler's ground-breaking theory of the orbital motion of planets within the solar system treated the mass ofthe planets as derived from their po­ Do all bodies dropped from a given sition. For him, the orbits themselves height fall to Earth in precisely the same were primary and depended upon time, regardless of differences in their principles of physical geometry. masses? Galileo's contention has been This was not in contradiction with considered law for 300 years, but now Galileo Galilei's contention that all this law has been challenged. Here, a bodies, dropped from a given height, portrait of Galileo in 1640. would fall to Earth in precisely the same time regardless of differences in their served by Galileo (assuming that he ac­ masses. tually conducted an experiment—and To account for the apparent empiri­ there is a convincing body of thought cal validity of Galileo's discovery, Isaac indicating that he did not). According Newton, when he derived his theory to accepted theory in the physics com­ of gravitational force from the product munity, there are four forces: the elec­ of the masses of two attracting objects tromagnetic force, related to the charge

(divided by the square of the distance (1 + ae ") = VN(r) + 4V(r). of objects; the gravitational force, between them), had, perforce, to The Fifth Force which depends upon the distance be­ equate their inertial and gravitational Recently, a group of physicists, led tween objects and their mass; the masses. In his view, the gravitational by Ephraim Fischbach of the Depart­ strong force within the nucleus, which mass of the falling object was exactly ment of Physics of the University of is presumed to accou nt for the fact that balanced by its gravitational resis­ Washington, challenged the founda­ the nucleus is held together, despite tions of accepted doctrine in physics the repulsive electromagnetic force; by offering an explanation of this dis­ and the weak force, which is the dis­ crepancy. They claim to have discov­ crepancy that occurs in the formation ered a fifth force, which acts as a re­ and dissolution of electron-positron pulsion between gravitating bodies and combinations from gamma rays, cor­ varies according to the mass number related to the supposed existence of of the bodies and their distance, the heretofore undetectable neutrino. reaching a maximum at approximately Although Fischbach's findings are 200 yards. extremely interesting empirically, it is our view that his approach is wrong If they are right, Galileo's "discov­ theoretically. Force theory, as such, is ery" that all bodies fall to Earth at the incorrect. Even the traditional classical same time, regardless of their mass, physicist must admit to being in a will have been proven false. Fischbach quandary when he tries to express ex­ published this revolutionary assertion actly the forces operating among three in the Jan. 6 issue of Physical Review bodies simultaneously. As we have ar­ Letters. gued in the pages of the International Of course, the amount of the dis­ Journal of Fusion Energy and Fusion crepancy involved is orders of magni­ magazine, the correct approach to Isaac Newton tude below what might have been ob-

May-June 1986 FUSION Research Report physics must look upon the universe in what was then assumed to be an accounts for Fischbach's results, but as a self-developing whole. acceptable level of error. Fischbach has also accounts for many other so-called Force vs. Work taken the Eotvos data and after review­ paradoxical findings that have been Forces are typically described as pri^ ing them (as described below) has plaguing modern physicists. mary relationships between objects. concluded that Eotvbs's conclusions According to Soldano's theory, that We argue, instead, that they should be were erroneous. portion of the gravitational energy that looked at as symptoms of a disturb­ Fischbach looked at the data from can be accounted for by the coming ance within the physical geometry of the point of view of modern physics, together of nucleons (neutrons and the universe—with the appearance of discounting the effects of the strong protons within the nucleus of an atom) a force indicating work done against and weak forces (unknown to Eotvos). is not identical to the inertial energy the universe. Thus, we agree with Kep­ He then subjected the remaining error associated with it. Soldano has found ler when he asserted that the orbits to statistical analysis and determined, this discrepancy to be numerically came first, and the planets were cre­ according to the standards of high-en­ equal to a correction factor of -5.05 ,J ated within them, according to laws of ergy physics, that there is a significant x 10 —a factor that can account for physical geometry. error and that it is incorrect to state a wide variety of otherwise unaccount­ In the modern period, this point of that the acceleration of these bodies ed for results. In his recently pub­ view has received confirmation in the was equal. lished journal article, "Gravitational work of the Mexican astronomer Luis The formula Fischbach used to de­ Carrasco, who has demonstrated the termine the so-called fifth force, was correlation of the mass of astronomi­ actually derived by D.R. Long, who cal objects—ranging in size from the published it in the magazine Nuovo planetary to the galactic—with their Cimento in 1980. It has also been re­ rotational spin. ferred to in the work of several scien­ The ratio between the gravitational tists who used it to account for dis­ force and electromagnetic force is 40 crepancies in the measurement of the orders of magnitude (1/10,000-trillion- gravitational constant. trillion-trillionth). The strong force of The Soldano Theory the nucleus is, of course, orders of Dr. B.A. Soldano, professor of phys­ magnitude greater than the electro­ ics at Furman University in Greenville, magnetic force, as is evidenced by the S.C., offers a more fundamental expla­ power of a nuclear explosion. The "fifth nation of this discrepancy, which en­ force," according to Fischbach, would tails a far more revolutionary chal­ have an order of magnitude 12 times lenge to accepted physics. Writing in smaller than the gravitational force, the International Journal of Fusion En­ which itself is 40 orders of magnitude ergy (Vol. 3, No. 3), he postulates that smaller than the electromagnetic force. there is a difference between gravita­ Fischbach asserts that not only do tional and inertial mass that not only we have four forces operating, but that there is in addition a fifth, which acts as a repulsion between objects and is at its maximum at a distance of 200 me­ ters. This is a surprising distance, since Kepler took the oppo­ it is neither an astronomical distance site approach from nor an atomic distance. Newton and Galileo. The results Fischbach obtained do He did not view not depend upon independent exper­ "forces" as primary; in­ imental work, but represent a relook- stead he derived his ing at the work of Roland von Eotvos, laws of planetary mo­ a Hungarian scientist who made a tion from the physical number of precise measurements of geometry of the the acceleration of different bodies planets and the Sun. under gravitational acceleration. Fbr Here is an engraving more than a decade, Eotvos compared from the first edition of the gravitational acceleration of sub­ Kepler's Mysterium stances like copper and platinum al­ cosmographicum in loy, a silver and iron sulphate mixture, 1596, which shows how a copper and asbestos mixture, water the orbits of the and copper, and tallow and copper. planets can be circum­ Eotvos concluded that these bodies scribed by the five Pla­ were accelerated at the same rate with- tonic solids.

Research Report FUSION May-June 1986 23 Binding Mass, Nonequivalence, and tempts to interrelate these two con­ h. Further, we propose to show that the Foundations of Physics With the flicting disciplines. the seeds of a resolution of the above Lageos Satellite As a Laboratory," Sol- "We take the position that an answer conflict already exist in the framework dano writes: to the question of primacy already ex­ of both quantum mechanics and gen­ "For decades, a conflict has raged in ists. Specifically, we propose to show eral relativity. . . . physics over the question of the pri­ that classical physics, slightly modified "In order to obtain accurate enough macy of classical physics inherent in to accommodate a restricted non- parameters for resolving a wide array general relativity or of quantum me­ equality between inertial and gravita­ of problems in both general relativity chanics. At present, physics maintains tional binding mass, leads to a purely and quantum mechanics, we shall be­ two parallel paths and occasionally at­ classical explanation of the quantum gin by demonstrating that the Lageos

Is Time Absolute? A Look at the Fine Structure Constant

The fine structure constant, a, is rocal of the fine structure constant; atomic time, is then compared to the approximately 1/137.036. It's recip­ that is, twice the fundamental Hall Earth's angular velocity, which he rocal, 1/a, is calculated by dividing impedance, Z„ divided by the corrects for the gravitational binding

Planck's constant h by the square root impedance of free space Zfs is the re­ energy difference and then normal­ of the electronic charge, e2, and mul­ ciprocal of the fine structure con­ izes, by dividing the corrected figure

tiplying this by the reciprocal of the stant 1/a = 2 ZH/Z/S or ZH = 137/2 Z,s. according to the Earth's aberration

permeability of free space, u,0, times This seems to say an electron in a angle. (The aberration angle is a cal­

the velocity of light, c, that is, 1/u0c, two-dimensional space of a thin culation for the apparent position of and then multiplying this product by semiconductor at 1.5°K has been re­ distant stars.) 2. Meter, kilogram, second, ampere stricted to 2/137 of the space of free Soldano explained why he thinks (MKSA) units are used throughout in space. that the discrepancy between the two order to be consistent and be in tune The relationship between the forms of binding mass can account with international system of units. It golden mean angle and the fine for the uncertainties of quantum can be thought of as a correlative of structure constant is established by theory as follows: "A fundamental Planck's constant, relating the veloc­ taking 360° and dividing it by the ap­ difficulty with the universal law lies ity of the electron in the first Bohr proximation of the square of the in the fact that Newton treated time orbit to the velocity of light: e2/ golden mean, 2.618. It would seem as an absolute concept; that is, one (h x c). arbitrary to introduce a calculation could determine unambiguously the a is known as a dimensionless specific to degrees (rather than ra­ simultaneity of two events. constant, because whatever units are dian measure for example) in com­ "This, however, requires that two used to calculate it, as long as they parison with a dimensionless con­ observers be in instantaneous com­ are applied consistently, the num­ stant; however, it is the case that cal­ munication. Synchronization of the ber obtained is the same. This of culation by degrees is an abstraction two clocks needed to measure si­ course, is not the case with c, the from the relationship between the multaneity requires that the signal speed of light, which varies numeri­ diurnal spin of the Earth and its year­ transmission time in one direction cally according to the units used to ly orbit. The number of revolutions be measureable." measured it. the Earth makes in a year is 365.26, He then develops considerations In MKSA units and when this is divided by the traditional to relativity theory and square of the golden mean, it yields states: "In a theory based on none­ 2 1/a = 2{hle ) 1/U0c = 137.036. 139.5. quivalence in gravitational binding, a has no dimensions. Soldano's Derivation of a however, additional intervals of h = 6.626175 x 10 » joules/cycle. Benny Soldano derives the fine causal independence or acausality e = 1.6021892 x 10 "coulomb. structure constant as a relationship are required. u^ = 4n x 10~7 henrys/meter. based upon shifts in the difference "This should not be a cause for = 4n x10 7volts-sec2/coulomb-m between ephemeral time (based concern, since our entire work dem­ = permeability of free space. upon the Earth's rotational orbit) and onstrates that time acausalities aris­ atomic time. The change in this ratio ing from mass nonequivalence in Note that hie2 = 25,812.8 ohms is he ascribes to transformations in the gravitational binding can be treated the fundamental Hall impedance and gravitational binding energy, related mathematically in a causal faction u^c = 376.73 ohms is the impedance to the shifting position of the Earth leading to solutions to fundamental of free space. The fundamental Hall or other such factors that affect the problems in physics. Precedence for resistance or impedance divided by macrocosm and the microcosm dif­ the use of time acausalities already the impedance of free space and that ferently. exists in the Heisenberg uncertainty quotient multiplied by 2 is the recip­ This difference, taken as a ratio of principle."

24 May-June 1986 FUSION Research Report satellite constitutes an extremely sen­ AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. BENNY SOLDANO sitive laboratory' for quantifying some of the parameters required by expla­ nations based on nonequivalence in gravitational binding." [A gravitational The Nonequivalence of Inertial binding force is the attractive self-en­ ergy of a nucleus.] and Gravitational Mass From this, Soldano derives a defini­ tion of both inertial and gravitational Dr. Benny Soldano has taught phys­ mass. Lageos, NASA's geodynamic sat­ ics for 15 years at Furman University in ellite, was placed in nearly circular or­ Greenville, S.C. From 1949 to 1971, he bit at approximately twice the radius of was a researcher in chemistry, physics, the Earth at approximately 110° incli­ and engineering at Oak Ridge National nation to the Earth's equator. This sat­ Laboratory. For the past two years, he ellite is well above the Earth's iono­ has been a Goddard summer research sphere and is in a nearly perfect vac­ fellow, under NASA's physics research uum; nonetheless it is falling at a rate program. He is interviewed here by Dr. of 1.1 millimeters per day. Robert Moon and Carol White. According to accepted theory, the satellite should not be falling. Further­ Question: Can you explain what you more, the plane of the satellite is rotat­ mean by the difference between gravi­ ing. Both of these otherwise inexplic­ tational and inertial mass? able results, as well as the Fischbach There are only two properties of results, are explained by Soldano's mass: first, that a given mass will at­ nonequivalence theory. tract all other mass, and that's called Soldano is able to derive the equa­ gravitational mass; and second, that m r/A tion V(r) = - Goc ±Hh^ + ae' ) = mass resists change in motion, and this Professor Benny Soldano: "The entire r resistance to change in motion is called foundation of science depends upon V/v(r) + A V(r) from his own theory be­ inertial mass. Now, these are two dif­ the equivalence principle." cause he relates the term a to his grav­ ferent properties of mass, but interest­ itational correction factor (a, it should ingly, when a substance falls, it can be About 25 years ago, I concluded that be noted, is the inverse of the fine "inerting" and "gravitating" at the same the central difficulty which Einstein had structure constant) and, of course, lime. run into when he attempted to unify plays an important role in quantum Since these are two different prop­ physics, was the fact that General Rel­ theory. erties, one would, without being told ativity could not describe, surprising­ The problem inherent in Soldano's differently, assume that the values you ly, gravitational binding energy—of all "revision" of quantum theory is locat­ would associate with inertial and grav­ things. It could handle all other forms ed in the curious epistemological ex­ itational mass would be different. The of energy, but it couldn't handle grav­ planation of the gravitational binding fact that—assuming they are in a vac­ itational energy. It ran into such prob­ force, which he accepts as a premise uum—all things appear to fall to the lems as apparent violation of conser­ for his work. ground with the same acceleration, is vation of energy at the microscopic This traditional, Newtonian expla­ indirect proof that the inertial mass and level, and it required a special model nation presumes an original condition the gravitational mass are one, and of the universe in order to fit a series of complications. in which the components of the nuclei identically equal to each other. of atoms float in empty space, presum­ I concluded, upon analysis of Gen­ ably attracted to each other. The grav­ Question: Is this what Galileo showed eral Relativity's inability to quantita­ itational energy that brought them to­ when he asserted that things of different tively handle gravitational energy un­ gether is then supposed to be stored mass fell to the Earth in the same amount ambiguously, that this was a manifes­ as a part of the binding energy holding of time? tation of a difficulty in the theory's fun­ the nucleus together. He proved that the inertial mass and damental assumption. In the gravita­ The importance of his results would the gravitational mass properties ap­ tional binding-energy part of energy in be greatly enhanced were he to recast pear to be identically equal to each general, which is a very small but very his theory into the Keplerian mode. other—which is contrary to reason, important part, the assumption that in­ you would have thought. And Ein­ ertial and gravitational mass were stein, then, took this apparent equali­ identically equal to each other was Dr. Moon, professor emeritus at the ty, and he made it a principle—the so- false. This is very important for any un­ University of Chicago, is editor-in-chief called equivalence principle. ified field theory. of the International Journal of Fusion Energy. Carol White is editor-in-chief Question: How did you come to develop Question: What do you think of Fisch- ofTusion. your theory of nonequivalence? bach's communication to the Jan. 6,1986

Research Report FUSION May-June 1986 25 Physical Review Letters suggesting a new "fifth force" to explain the discrepancy? The Eotvos experiment [on which the Fischbach work is based] measured the acceleration of an object relative to the Earth—how it falls. It can be done with pendulums, or by means of bending torsional fibers; but essentially you're looking at the acceleration, how things fall relative to the Earth. And contrary to the equivalence principles of Ein­ stein and Galileo, the fact is, [the Fisch­ bach group] found that in the Eotvos experiment, just by analyzing what he [Eotvos] had done 60 years ago, heav­ ier objects (objects that had more nu- cleons associated with them) would fall just a little bit slower than substances composed of a smaller number of nu- cleons.

Question: Why hasn't anyone comment­ ed on this up until now? I've had at least 42 abstracts and in­ vited talks on the subject in the past 15 years, but the physics community was just not ready to listen, because the equivalence principle has almost be­ come "theological." Because Special This Laser Ceodynamic Satellite (Lageos), launched in 1976, is designed to pro­ Relativity depends upon the validity of vide a stable point in the sky to reflect pulses of laser light on its 426 special the equivalence principle, General reflectors. By timing the return of the laser beam to an accuracy of about one Relativity depends upon the equiva­ ten-billionth of a second, scientists expect to measure the relative location of lence principle; the entire foundation participating ground stations within an inch. Soldano has used the Lageos sat­ of science depends upon the equiva­ ellite as a laboratory for quantifying his hypothesis of nonequivalence. lence principle. niques. They just went back and reex­ It's not densities which you're com­ Question: Why hasn't the equivalence amined the data, and found, lo and paring, but the number of nucleons, principle been challenged before? Why behold, that the conclusion of the null the number of protons and neutrons do you think that there wasn't any ques­ hypothesis—that there is no differ­ associatedwiththenuclei. Ifyoucould tion raised about the discrepancy that ence between inertial and gravitation­ density something, by some means, by was found at the time when Eotvos did al mass—really doesn't seem to hold compressing it, it would not necessar­ his experiment? up. The data actually fit the pattern that ily be the case that it had the same mass The experiment was considered so the more nucleons (that is protons and number as something else which had much more accurate and sensitive than neutrons, the mass number) you have an equal mass density. The mass num­ anything up to that time, that they in any pair of atoms which you are ber is called hypercharge in modern thought that this was a remarkable ex­ comparing, the less acceleration will quantum physics. tension of the principle. And a whole occur. body of literature has arisen—a mas­ A fancy name for nucleon, which Question: What is your objection to the sive amount—that always refers to the Fischbach and his group like, is "hy- so-called fifth force? experiment and its modern variants as percharge." That gives you the idea, They evoke a fifth force, hyper­ proof of the validity of the equivalence you're able to introduce quantum con­ charge force, which is repulsive. It will, principle. And then one starts to con­ siderations, like strangeness; but in the they say, tend to repel the Earth as a struct theories like Special and Gen­ Eotvos experiments, you're dealing substance falls, so that the substance eral, which depend upon that single- with non-strange material, and nu­ won't fall as fast. This, I submit, is an minded assumption. cleon number and hypercharge attempt to save Special and General amount to the same thing. Relativity theory, which both depend Question: What was the analytic tech­ fundamentally on the equivalence nique the Fischbach group used? Question: Can you expand on the fact principle—the equality of inertial and Just curve-fitting, and using modern that what is actually being compared are gravitational mass. error-analysis and graphical tech­ not densities as such but mass number? They went to an equation which has

26 May-June 1986 FUSION Research Report been evolving over the last 10 to 15 based, have priority over classical years, in which the general premise is physics? that the Newtonian gravitational coni That is the central question. The an­ stant indeed is not quite a constant. The equivalence principle swer is that nonequivalence in gravi­ There is a Newtonian gravitational has almost become tational binding strongly indicates that constant at infinite extension from 'Theological.' classical physics, when modified by this some reference frame, which has a nonequivalence idea, leads to a unit of larger value than the gravitational coni action which mirrors all of the charac­ stant that you find when you make teristics of the quantum itself. In prin­ measurements in a laboratory. We're ciple, therefore, nonequivalence says talking about a small difference, but binding. I show that a hypercharge- classical theory ultimately has prece­ it's real, it's measurable, it's come out dependent nonequality between in- dence over the dominant physics to­ of a lot of geophysical measurements: ertial and gravitational binding mass, day, which is quantum mechanics. that the Newtonian gravitational con­ one consistent with a nonnull Eotvos Today, quantum mechanicians think stant really has a slight variation in it. result, leads to a range-dependent that you start with Planck's constant, They say that a hypercharge effect Newtonian gravitational constant. The and from it you can derive the world. can account for this disparity between resultant explanation emphasizes the Nonequivalence says, you start with the gravitational constant at infinity and fact that Newton's universal law as­ classical physics; once you introduce a local gravitational constant. They say sumes the existence of an absolute nonequivalence in gravitational bind­ that these empirical constants, the time. Our explanation details the man­ ing, you can arrive at the quantum it­ constants of the equation, produce the ner in which the three kinds of time self—which is the fundamental ques­ new fifth force they're talking about. currently used in physics—that is, uni­ tion of modern science. They think they've avoided the central versal, ephemeris, and atomic time— question, but the equation they us& interrelate, thereby leading to the already betrays them. elimination of the Newtonian problem Fusion Budget General Relativity is based upon strict of absolute time. equivalence, and in General Relativity, Confined from page 15 the Newtonian gravitational constant Question: So, according to the work development? No. The U.S. imploding must remain constant under all con­ you've done, in which you state the non- liner R&D effort was killed in 1978 by ditions. General Relativity, based upon equivalence of inertial and gravitational Energy Secretary Schlesinger. The So­ the equivalence principle, requires that energy, you can make your work cohere viets, however, apparently maintained the Newtonian gravitational constant with the values they found empirically? a program on the scale of the overall remain an absolute constant; it can't Absolutely. I can derive them theo­ U.S. tokamak effort. vary. But here they're using an equa­ retically. A fifth force tends to localize Having such a cheap and readily ac­ tion, based upon experimental data, this difficulty being encountered by the cessible source for laboratory high- that shows the constant varies! And [physics] Establishment. Nonequival­ density fusion would put Soviet re­ they say the hypercharge explains it! ence in gravitational binding clearly searchers in a vastly superior position. Well, obviously, whatever the hyper­ shows that this effect appears at every The cost of conducting full-scale test­ charge is doing, it's inconsistent with level of physics. We handle the strong ing, for example, could be reduced by General Relativity. interaction, we handle electromagnet­ as much as three orders of magnitude ic force, we handle the weak force, and and the time span from conceptuali­ Question: How does this relate to your we handle gravitation. Because non- zation to actual test could be reduced own theory? equivalence in gravitational binding from years to months. The equation they're using to fit their can't be restricted; it appears at every Even more significant for the Sovi­ data, is easily calculable according to level of interaction in science. ets, such laboratory experiments are my theory. In fact, the equation is ac­ virtually impossible to detect, while tually referenced in the paper of mine Question: What are the philosophical underground weapons tests—espe­ which you are publishing [in the Inter­ implications of your theory, that there is cially in the United States—are easily national journal of Fusion Energy], and a nonequivalence in gravitational and in­ discerned. In fact, the recent Soviet I am sending you an appendix which ertial energy? initiative to implement a comprehen­ deals directly with Fischbach's conclu­ In my opinion, the weakest of the sive nuclear weapon test ban treaty may sions. There are a lot of arguments weak of all interactions, nonequival­ indeed be based on their ability to pro­ which I go into. ence in gravitational binding, will pro­ duce laboratory-scale undetectable vide the key to uniting all four levels of "weapons tests." Question: Can you explain this for a pop­ interaction in science. More impor­ Although this specific example has ular audience? tant, it will provide an answer to the not yet been fully confirmed, it dem­ I can make it very simple. I can de­ fundamental dilemma that's faced all onstrates how the proposed Reagan rive the empirical constants which of science for the last 70 years, namely: fusion budget cuts could immediately Fischbach uses from my formula foi Does Planck's constant, on which the result in a major national security de­ the nonequivalence in gravitational modern revolution in physics has been ficit.

Research Report FUSION May-June 1986 27 Klitzing with his experimental apparatus in the physics laboratory at the University of Wurzhurg.

strength of the magnetic field). This effect is enhanced if the conductor is wide, thin, and long so that the elec­ German Physicist Demonstrates tron gas is constrained to an approxi­ mately two-dimensional flow.1 The Hall effect can be thought of as Quantum Hall Effect a by-product of cyclotron frequency, if it is kept in mind that in the normal situation the full cyclotron rotation The Nobel prize for physics was magnetic fields. In these studies he cannot take place because of the limi­ awarded in 1985 to Klaus von Klitzing used the Hall effect, discovered in 1879 tations of the conductor size. There­ for his experiments revealing quanti­ by the American Edwin Herbert Hall. fore, the potential will build up be­ zation of the Hall resistance. Klitzing This effect is customarily employed to tween the edges, which are parallel to also has done a series of experiments determine the conductivity of metals the direction of the current flow in the that showed the quantization of the and semiconductors and to measure conductor. Electrons will be built up Hall effect. magnetic field strength. on one side of the conductor as they Although this latter result was antic­ The Hall effect appears as a new, are driven over from the other.2 ipated and then measured in the 1960s, transverse electrical potential, which The Hall effect also occurs in the Klitzing has succeeded in demonstrat­ is generated when an electrical cur­ ionosphere, the Earth's "upper" at­ ing the effect with great clarity. The rent flows in a conductor that lies in a mosphere. Here the magnetic field is fineness and precision of his experi­ plane perpendicular to the magnetic supplied by the Earth. The electrons ment have, in effect, allowed him to field, as illustrated in Figurel. It occurs will resonate with a radio field at the replicate the first Bohr orbit, and in as a result of the deflection of elec­ frequency of 1,414 kilocycles, well this way achieve a more precise deter­ trons passing through a magnetic field. within the broadcasting band. mination of the fine structure con­ The electrons are separated from the The key to the cyclotron, of course, stant. positive charges creating an electrical is that the frequency of rotation of the Klitzing investigated the surfaces of potential between them (the Lorentz electrons will be constant (within rela- semiconductors under extreme con­ force, eV x B, where e represents the tivistic limits) in a given magnetic field. ditions—low temperatures and high charge, V the rate of flow, and B the This frequency, normally denoted as

May-June 1986 FUSION Research Report Figure 1 SCHEMATIC REPRESENTATION OF THE HALL EFFECT Given a conductor through which the current I is flowing and a magnetic field B perpendicular to the direction of the current and the plane of the current carrying transistor, the Lorentz

force FB will deflect the charged particles sideways. The parti­ cles will collect on the edge parallel to the electron velocity (when no magnetic field is present) and move from the oppo­ site edge of the transistor. This charge separation leads to the buildup of an electrical

field EH (the Hall field). As soon as the resulting force Fc com­ pensates for the Lorentz force, an undetected current contin­

ues to flow. A potential difference UH is created between these two edges. a), will equal the velocity, V/2nR, sions are minimized and the electric the curve shown in Figure 3 by its char­ where R is the radius. The point of the field is homogenous. acteristic plateaus. experiment in quantizing the Hall ef­ These experimenters were limited in The Quantum Hall Effect fect is to gradually increase the mag­ 1958 by the semiconductor materials The experiment was performed un­ netic field, thereby raising the orbital then available, which were too thick. der very strictly determined condi­ frequency of the electrons in quantum Klitzing was able to take advantage of tions. The MOSFET was cooled to about jumps and determining that the build­ today's very thin transistor material in 1.5 degrees K (- 272 degrees C). At this up of the transverse electric potential, order to achieve his superior results. low temperature, the kinetic energy of the Hall effect, occurs in a series of The extremely thin MOS field-effect the electrons in the conducting layer discrete jumps rather than smoothly. transistors (MOSFET) he used are of the transistor is so small, that the In 1958, experimenters worked with sketched in Figure 2. "electrons are unable to move perpen­ the superconducting alloy indium an- The normal expectation is that a hy­ dicularly to the electrical field. This tinomide, one of the alloys typically perbolic curve could be plotted show­ condition of restricted degrees of free­ used in the manufacture of supercon­ ing the gate potential against the Hall dom of electron oscillations is termed ducting magnets, at temperatures of effect. The number of charge-carriers a two-dimensional electron gas. 1.7 degrees K. However, the tempera­ e available to the current in these tran­ Klitzing also used an unusually strong ture must be at least 77 degrees K in sistors grows proportionally to the gate magnetic field in his experiment— order for the Hall effect to appear, be­ potential Uc. The hyperbola shown in 180,000 gauss. This is about 400,000 cause of the dampening of the thermal Figure 3 is what would be expected if times the strength of the Earth's mag- kinetic energy that would otherwise UH were plotted as a function of Uc. obscure measurement. Another key Contrary to all expectation, no such requirement is for a sufficiently low smooth curve exists. The curve shown space charge—that is, density of in Figure 4, experimentally deter­ charge—in order that random colli­ mined by von Klitzing, deviates from

Figure 2 MOS FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTOR The transistor is supplied with current through the source and drain contacts. In the presence of a con­

ducting channel Uc, a con­ ducting layer is formed be­ tween the semiconductor and oxide. Under certain Figure 3 physical conditions (T K), THE THEORETICAL a two-dimensional elec­ PREDICTION tron gas is formed in this This is the hyperbolic corre­ layer. MOSFET elements spondence that one might ex­ are contained in many of pect between the grid voltage Uc, today's electronic circuits. and the Hall voltage UH.

Research Report FUSION May-June 1986 29 netic field and almost the same order In addition to the Hall effect, which Klitzing was able to determine that of magnitude as is found in the atom. measures the transverse potential de­ there is a "natural resistance," which This strong magnetic field forces the veloped between the two edges of the is solely determined by the ratio of electrons of a two-dimensional elec­ semiconductor, there is also the Hall, Planck's quantum of action divided by tron gas into closed paths. Just as in or magneto, resistance, which in ef­ the square of the electron charge. This the atomic nucleus, only a definite fect is a lengthening of the path the figure, 25,813 ohms, when divided by number of rotational states are possi­ electron must travel to reach the the Landau level exhibits very sharp ble, and only a definite number of boundary of the conductor. The resis­ quantum plateaus. electrons can belong to the same state. tance increases as the magnetic field is His very sharp experimental result, (The rotational state is called the Lan­ increased (by introducing an added showing the quantization of the Hall dau level, whose maximum numberof degree of rotational motion to the resistance, was possible because he electrons is nt = e • B//?, where h is electron around the field lines) and it was working with an extremely thin Planck's constant.3 If p Landau levels decreases with increased electron transistor and with a high magnetic are occupied, np = p • e • B/h. In this density. If the magnetic field is in­ field. He was able to demonstrate that case, the Hall resistance is RH p = 1/p • creased sufficiently, ultimately the when the electrons are restricted to a hie1.) electron flow will simply be cut off. plane, electrical conductivity depends solely on two elementary physical con­ stants, Planck's constant and the charge of the electron. Figure 4 This simple result came as a great KLITZING'S surprise, since it had been assumed EXPERIMENTAL CURVE until now that the conductivity of a two- This is what the grid volt­ dimensional electron gas in a magnet­

age Uc versus the Hall volt­ ic field would depend on a number of

age VH actually looks like, constants, such as the magnetic field according to Klitzing's ex­ strength, the characteristics of the periment. The plateaus in semiconductors used, and the geom­ the Hall voltage can be etry of the design of the experiment.

seen clearly. Upp is the lon­ Instead, one finds only a "natural re­ gitudinal voltage, which sistance" that appears in the character­ 4 becomes zero when the istic interval of RHp = 25,813/p ohm, plateaus appear. Klitzing whenever the concentration of charge- first published these re­ carriers is increased in a fixed magnet­ sults in 1980 in Physical Re­ ic field or the magnetic field is in­ view Letters. creased in a fixed concentration of charge carriers. Figure 5 shows the re­ sults of an experiment carried out by the Federal (West German) Physical- Technical Institute in Braunschweig. In this experiment, the magnetic field was varied, unlike Klitzing's original exper­ Figure 5 iment (Figure4), and the "steps" of the THE SAME EXPERIMENT plateaus of the quantum Hall resis­ WITH A VARYING tance are brought out very beautifully. MAGNETIC FIELD It is also surprising that the value of The plateaus from Klitz- the quantum Hall resistance (except for ing's data in Figure 4 be­ the factor of the speed of light) is the come even more exagger­ same as the fine structure constant, a, ated here where the con­ first determined by physicist Arnold centration of charged par­ Sommerfeld in Munich in 1916. Som- ticles was held constant merfeld introduced the constant a in and the magnetic field was an attempt to remove some of the cru­ varied. These data are from der inadequacies of Niels Bohr's plan­ an experiment carried out etary model for the atom. Bohr's mod­ by E. Braun at the Federal el corresponds neither to the line Physical-Technical Insti­ spectrum of atoms with large atomic tute. numbers, nor to the splitting of the spectral lines in the so-called double- lines. His model allows only circular orbits for electrons. However, since

Research Report Kepler's time, such an assumption for AN INTERVIEW WITH KLAUS VON KLITZING the motion of a particle around a cen­ tral body must be seen as totally arbi­ trary. Sommerfeld came upon the con­ The Quantum Hall Effect cept for the electron motion in the general Keplerian orbital form of the ellipse, in which the orbital velocities reached in the vicinity of the nucleus EDITOR'S NOTE make a relativistic correction neces­ Klaus von Klitzing, who won the No­ sary. This has the consequence that the bel Prize in physics in 1985 for his work orbits are no longer closed ellipses, on the quantization of the Hall resis­ but become rosette-curves when tance, has been a member of the gov­ rounding the perihelion. This model erning faculty at the Max Planck Insti­ gives a nearly exact interpretation of tute for Solid State Physics in Stuttgart the experimental doublets. since January 1985. He received his Thus, the fine structure constant is doctorate in 1972 under the direction of crucial importance for the entire of Prof. Gottfried Landweh rat the Uni­ concept of quantum physics. Its value versity of Wurzburg, and after a re­ is about 1/137, which is also the ratio of search stay at Oxford University he the velocity of an electron at the lowest joined the faculty at Wurzburg in 1978. level in a hydrogen atom, to the veloc­ From 1980 to 1984, he was associate ity of light. Using von Klitzing's meth­ professor at the Technical University in od, a's value can be measured now to Munich. the millionth place. Here are excerpts from an interview Nov. 14, 1985 conducted by Hans Hor- Klaus von Klitzing e/s and Ralf Schauerhammer, editors This is an adaptation of a longer ar­ of the German-language Fusion mag­ about new quantum phenomena in azine. ticle written by Ralf Schauerhammer in solid bodies. the German language Fusion maga­ zine. Question: Can you tell us what is so Question: The subject of quantum phys­ unique about your discovery of the ics is about 50 years old. How did it hap­ Notes quantum Hall effect? pen that you found something totally We are dealing with something very new? 1. With b as the width of the conductor in the direc­ fundamental, which in solid state I think that anybody could have tion in which the electrostatic field EH is generat­ ed by the Hall effect, and V for the velocity of the physics exists only in the case of su­ found it. Everybody who reads the lit­ electrons, the force acting on the electron is FE perconductivity. Superconductivity is erature has seen the graphs that lead = e • EH, and FB = e V x B . The magnitude of V is given by the strength of the current, since a fundamental phenomenon in which to this quantum Hall effect. He or she this is exactly the number n of charges e, which the difficult components of solid bod­ could have seen and could have ana­ flow through a cross-section of the layer of width b in a unit time. Thus, / = n • e b • V and V = // ies no longer appear, but we are con­ lyzed it. (n • e • b). This expression results directly in UH fronted with a quite clear phenome­ The curves with these extreme pla­ = b x E„ = B • F /e = BF /e = bVxB = E B non. The same is true for the so-called teaus, which now are key, had been B • ll(n • e • b) • B. quantum Hall effect. 2. The constancy of the cyclotron frequency is de­ published before. Therefore, all you termined by equating the Lorentz force with the In researching semiconductors, un­ needed was essentially only some ex­ centrifugal force, where m equals the mass, e der specific conditions, you get results perience and the idea at the right mo­ the charge of the electron, V the velocity, R the radius, B the magnetic field, and w the angular that depend only upon fundamental ment. I have had the advantage of being 2 frequency. Thus, eV x B = m V /fl. eB = mV/ constants, on natural values. The sig­ able to do research with different R; eS/m = V/R = eV • 2n. This gives the result eS/2n -m • Frequency. For this effect to be nificance of this is the same as some­ samples for 10 years, and then I had sharply measurable it is necessary to have a one discovering that the speed of light the insight that something fundamen­ strong magnetic field, but also to work within a is a velocity that nature has preas- sufficiently narrow radius so that the quantization tal is at hand here. Of the velocity is large enough, relative to the signed. Certainly, this was only possible be­ velocity, to be measurable. Since Klitzing con­ In the same way, there is a kind of cause I could participate in research cluded his experiment, other experimenters have obtained similar results by etching circuits of a natural resistance that always has the work on a long term. Others, who only fraction of a micron diameter, even in thin cop­ value of 6453.2 ohm and that depends have looked at the curves, had a cer­ per. This would be like a minute washer. only on fundamental constants, tain line of thought. We have been 3. It is n = state of density times energy interval, Planck's quantum of action and the el­ whose state can be reduced to a Landau level. misdirected somewhat by these theo­ 3 2 Thus, nL = m/(8 • n h ) • 2n • h • u, where co = ementary charge. When you find such retical conceptions. e • B/m, which is the cyclotron frequency. a result, then you are dealing with deep I once wrote a diploma thesis deal­ 4. The value of 25,813 ohms is easily calculated. It physical phenomena. You learn very ish = 6.625-10 ^Jsec and e = 1.6020-10",9C. ing with the quantum Hall effect. We J sec/C2 = J/C - A results exactly in the ohm unit. much from that about solid bodies and Continued on page 64

Research Report FUSION May-June 1986 31 Experimental Results Surprise Quantum Theory

A group of scientists at the Institute in positron-electron emission do not perimental point of view, that in fact for the Study of Heavy Ions at Darms­ exist and, therefore, there is no need this would occur not at 137 but at Z = tadt University in West Germany have to posit the existence of the neutrino. 173 or greater. This has to do with the observed that, contrary to theoretical The highest known nuclear charge actual finitude of nuclei, and the par­ predictions, positron-electron pairs are does not have a Z as high as 137; how­ ticles that make it up, which in quan­ created in nuclei with high atomic ever, the experimenters at Darmstadt tum physics are treated as point parti­ numbers, in the Z range from 180 to were able to simulate a "supercritical" cles rather than as having a finite vol­ 188. (Z is the the number of protons.) nucleuswith aZabove173 by colliding ume. The interest in their results, how­ uranium nuclei, or other similarly high Prior to the work at Darmstadt, this ever, does not occur in the confirma­ atoms. Walter Greiner at Goethe Uni­ positron-electron emission was never tion of the deviation from the "theo­ versity, Frankfurt-on-Main, West Ger­ verified experimentally. Eight years retical" predictions that pair produc­ many, led the group of experimenters ago, Greiner and his colleagues pro­ tion would occur where the atomic who achieved these results, and in the duced heavy nuclei by colliding heavy number was a reciprocal of the fine Soviet Union Yakov Zel'dovich pro­ ions with each other. For example, structure constant, Z = 137. This de­ posed a similar idea. thorium hitting tantalum produced a viation had already been predicted. For theoretical reasons to do with fused nucleus as high as Z = 163. Since Rather, the interest lies in the occur­ the bound state of the electron, it might 1981, the group at Darmstadt has been rence of a quantized positron kinetic have been predicted that production producing heavy nuclei in a still higher energy peak at 300. of positron-electron pairs would occur range, as high as Z = 188, and they The results were covered extensive­ only at atomic number Z = 137, (the have hopes of reaching higher ranges ly in the November 1985 Physics To­ integer closest to the reciprocal of the still. day.^ However, author Bertram fine structure constant), producing a Quantum electrodynamic predic­ Schwarzschild fails to note their most pair from a vacancy in the lowest-lying tions say that that peak production of remarkable feature: The Darmstadt re­ electron orbital level in the electron positron-electron pairs should be very sults lend substance to the contention shell. sensitively correlated to Z. The sur­ of nuclear physicist Erich Bagge that However, it has been generally as­ prise in the Darmstadt result is that this the traditionally accepted symmetries sumed, from a so-called realistic ex­ pair production has occurred over a broad range of Z, while the energy of the positron-electron pair remained very constant at about 300 keV irre­ spective of the colliding energies as well as of the Z. In the case of heavy nuclei, which have a high charge, there is a very strong electrostatic field at the lowest lying level. With normal elements, the chemical bonding at the valence shell is in the range of 8 to 10 eV, whereas with heavy nuclei the charge is in the range of 1 million eV. (The shell, of course, will be much closer to the nu­ cleus because of the extremely high charge of the nucleus.) It is from this high field that the paired particles are produced. The energy required to produce an electron (E = mc2) will be approximately 511,003 eV, and both a positron and an electron are created at 2 x 511,003 eV. Source: Institute for the Study of Heavy Ions, Darmstadt University, West Germany Conventional Wisdom? Like the fifth force people (see arti­ QUANTIZED POSITRON KINETIC ENERGY PEAK cle, page 22), conventional wisdom is Contrary to theoretical predictions, positron-electron pairs are created in nuclei already looking for the decay of a pre­ with high atomic numbers in the Z range from 180 to 188. The quantized positron viously unknown boson to account for kinetic energy peak occurs at 300. Shown are experimental results forthe Darms­ these findings. And this new boson tadt experiments. should be, in their view, only about

32 May-June 1986 FUSION Research Report three times the mass of the electron. Bagge conducted this experiment as tron normally exists and from which it Others are looking to quark theory for a crucial demonstration that the the­ must be torn away. an explanation. ory behind the Bethe-Heitler predic­ —Carol White Results such as these point to the tion was incorrect, in particular be­ need for major revision in quantum cause it depended upon the posited theory. One place to look is the crucial existence of the neutrino to prevent Notes- experiment conducted by Erich Bagge violation of energy conservation laws. 1. "Puzzling Positron Peaks Appear in Heavy Ion that showed that the production of a Bagge's own theory accounts for the Collisions at GSI," by Bertram Schwarzschild, positron-electron pair from a gamma apparent loss of energy, by denying Physics Today (Nov. 1985), p. 17. ray had an energy spectrum in effect the existence of a vacuum and substi­ 2. See the accompanying note by Bagge and also his article "Why Neutrinos Don't Exist: What Really opposite in distribution to that pre­ tuting instead a fundamental "nega­ Happens in Pair Production and Beta Decay," in dicted by the Bethe-Heitler theory.2 tive energy" state, in which the posi­ Fusion (Nov.-Dec. 1985), p. 29.

Low-Energy Positrons in Pair Creation

In the November 1985 issue of Phys­ ics Today,' Bertram Schwarzschild re­ ports on "puzzling positron peaks ap­ pearing in heavy ion collisions at the Society for Heavy Ion Research at Darmstadt in West Germany (GSI)." There is also a discussion of experi­ ments to explain the intensity peaks of positron energies between 300 and 400 keV. Erich R. Bagge, Ahmed Abu El-Ela, and Soad Hassan have reported in sev­ eral places,2 on measurements of pair creation of positrons and electrons that were triggered by gamma quanta of 6.14 MeV at their passage at nuclei of gold atoms (atomic number or Z = Courtesy of Erich Bagge 79). It was also established that the TRAJECTORIES OF AN ELECTRON-POSITRON PAIR positrons predominantly receive low In this photograph of one of Bagge's experiments in a Wilson cloud chamber, kinetic energies, generally around 270 the electron exits upward, with energy of 5.02 MeV, while the positron exits keV. downward with energy of 0.62 MeV. According to the Bethe-Heitler theory, the There is a great probability that both two energies were supposed to be nearly equal. the GSI measurements and those done by our group at the University of Kiel tically zero energy. These positrons are at Kiel show the same interpretation in are based on the same effect. If one then discharged through the Coulomb the case of the gold nucleus, with conceives of the impact of a uranium field of the uranium nucleus at rest. omewhat smaller average energies: nucleus (atomic number = 92) of 6 MeV Since the positrons must be looked energy per nucleon on another urani­ at as wave packets of minimal exten­ E\,n (Kiel) = f\in (GSI) • 79/92 um nucleus of the same type at rest as sion h/mc, they can, by means of this = 294.7 keV. being a pair-producing process, as if discharge process, gain the energy: the Fourier-analysed Coulomb fields —Erich H. Bagge of the 92 impacting protons would be E\ = Y~mc2 = 92/137 mc2 fields of light quanta, then these trig­ in Notes ger electron-positron pairs in the Cou­ = 343.2 keV. 1. "Puzzling Positron Peaks Appear in Heavy Ion lomb field of the nucleus at rest. In Collisions at GSI," by Bertram Schwarzschild, these pairs—in accordance with our This is just about the energy found Physics Today, (Nov. 1985), p. 17. 2. Erich R. Bagge, Fusion (German-language edi­ observations and their consequent at GSI in the maximum intensity peaks, tion), (Dec. 1985), p. 11; and IJFE, (Jan. 1985), interpretations—mainly positrons are during six experiments using various p. 53; Ahmed Abu El-Ela, Soad Hassan, Erich R. created, densely compacted at the sur­ actinic impact partners. The results of Bagge, Atomkernenergie/Kemtechnik, 47 (109), 1985:45(208), 1984; Fusion, (Nov.-Dec. 1985), face of the Dirac Sea; that is, with prac- the experiments ourgroup conducted p. 29.

Research Report FUSION May-June 1986 33 Curing Lung Cancer With Laser Light

by Ned Rosinsky, M.D.

Recent developments in medical they show up on a standard X-ray, while 200 patients—with an apparent cure technology will soon make it possible they are still in the size range of 1 mil­ rate of 100 percent for localized tu­ to cure the majority of patients with limeter. At this smaller stage, there is mors. lung cancer: first, by detecting the tu­ much less likelihood that the cancer Although these patients have been mor early while it is less than 1 milli­ has spread by metastasis to other lung followed after treatment for up to sev­ meter in diameter and has not yet areas, or has invaded neighboring tis­ eral years with no recurrence, Bal­ spread; second, by definitive treat­ sues. chum cautions that the proof of long- ment of the small tumor with laser light As with the PAP test, the sputum test term efficacy will require an additional to destroy the cancer without harming can be done easily on a mass scale in five to ten years of follow-up monitor­ normal surrounding lung tissue. This an outpatient setting and is harmless ing, as in any treatment modality used latter technology, based on optical to the patient. Saccomanno states that in fighting cancer. biophysics, will save more than 100,000 routine screening of the population The localization of the tumor is dif­ lives in the United States annually. would pick up more than 100,000 of ficult for several reasons. Although 95 Lung cancer is the leading type of the 130,000 new cases of lung cancer percent of lung tumors start in the lin­ cancer in men and will soon be the annually, at this early treatable stage. ing of the airway tubes, the bronchi, same for women, accounting for ap­ Optical Biophysics and are therefore accessible by a fiber­ proximately 130,000 new cases in the The second component of the ther­ optic bronchoscope (inserted through United States annually, and an equal apy, precise localization of the tumor, the mouth and down the airway tube), number of deaths. Current treatments as well as the third stage, definitive the tumors in the early treatable stage are nearly always ineffective, with a treatment, are both made possible by are small and difficult to distinguish five-year survival rate after detection laser biophysics. This new modality is from normal tissue. This problem is of the tumor that is under 5 percent. termed photodynamic therapy (PDT). compounded by the large area of pos­ Until now, the main problem in Dr. Oscar Balchum, a pioneer in this sible locations, the entire series of treatment has been early detection. area who is the head of pulmonary branching bronchi in both lungs. Once the tumor is large enough to be medicine at the University of Southern To improve the visualization of the seen on chest X-ray or CT scan—it has California School of Medicine in Los tumors, Balchum has the patient take to be approximately 1 centimeter in di­ Angeles, so far has treated more than a dye substance chemically related to ameter—in more than 75 percent of cases the cancer has already spread so far that it is inoperable. Further, there are no effective chemotherapy or ra­ diation therapy treatments that have more than a short-term palliative ef­ fect. The detection problem has been sig­ nificantly improved recently with the development of better screening for the presence of cancer cells in sputum samples. In the past five years, this technology has been brought up to a level comparable with the PAP test for cervical cancer, which itself has made a dramatic improvement in cervical cancer survival rates. The sputum test involves breathing in a mist aerosol, then coughing up a sample of bronchial mucous. This is then examined for cancer cells that have sloughed off a tumor in the lung. The innovator of this technology, Dr. Geno Saccomanno at St. Mary's Hos­ pital in Grand Junction, Colo., stated that the technique can pick up lung cancers several years or more before

34 May-June 1986 FUSION Research Report Source: "Photoradiation Therapy of Endobronchial Lung Cancer: Large Obstructing Tumors, Nonobstructing Tumors, and Early-Stage Bronchial Cancer Lesions," by Oscar J. Balchum, M.D., Ph.D. and Daniel R. Doiron, Ph.D, in Clinics in Chest Medicine, Vol. 6, No. 2, June 1985, p. 264.

The left lower lobe bronchus is totally occluded by a tumor (a). The photoradiation treatment with the tiny cylinder tip is shown in (b), and the intense complete diffusion of red light (white light off) throughout the tumor is shown in (c). After the cleanup, the left lower lobe bronchus is fully opened up to its walls. the heme portion of hemoglobin, HpD dye to photo-excite, which then ed for the fight against cancer. How­ termed photofrin II (abbreviated HpD), causes a variety of excited oxygen states ever, the biochemical specificity de­ which selectively localizes in tumor (termed singlet radical states) in the veloped in the case of the HpD dye, cells. cancer cell that interfere with normal for example, can be complemented To increase the visibility of the dye, cell membrane and mitochondrial ac­ and enhanced with the extreme spec­ he illuminates the bronchi with a blue tivity and slowly kill the tumor. ificity of laser frequencies in order to laser fitted into the fiber-optics of his This method is in contrast to the use get the required overall specificity bronchoscope. This makes the HpD- of lasers at higher powers in surgery, needed to selectively kill the cancer laden cells fluoresce in the red region where the laser heats the tissue to pro­ without harming the patient. of the spectrum, so they stand out duce the desired effect. Thus, there is clearly against the background tissue. little likelihood that the HpD tech­ Letters The source of the blue light is a kryp­ nique will harm normal tissue. Again, ton ion laser. Balchum reports that the normal tissue does not significantly Continued from page 5 HpD technology can find the tumor in absorb either the HpD dye or the red 225 gift subscriptions of Fusion. This 60 to 70 percent of the cases where the laser light. magazine will enhance the education­ patient's sputum shows cancer but Because 95 percent of all lung can­ al instruction at Satellite and be en­ none can be seen on normal light cers begin in the lining of the bronchi, joyed by many. bronchoscopy. It is not yet fully under­ and because the cure rate is 95 to 100 We felt a tremedous loss over the stood why cancer cells take up the HpD percent when the tumor is surgically tragedy of Challenger 7 and its crew, dye more than normal cells. However, removed in its early stages (by taking but this memory will live on through the dye, like its closely related heme out the entire lobe of the lung where the thoughtful contributions of your group in hemoglobin, can be readily the tumor is located), the PDT ap­ supporters. involved in oxidation/reduction chem­ proach, which uses only local treat­ Rita Calbraith ical reactions. It is possible that the ab­ ment, should have a comparable cure Assistant Principal normal metabolism of cancer cells, rate to early surgery. That is, it should Satellite High School particularly the frequent finding of the cure the great majority of cases. Satellite Beach, Florida use of metabolic pathways that do not The PDT technique demonstrates the use oxygen (the reliance on glycolysis great power of optical biophysics in The Dream Is Alive for energy rather than the use of oxi­ creating procedures that are specific dative phosphorylation), may account to particular states of tissues. The ma­ To the Editor: for this selective uptake of the dye. jor problem in treating cancer is that The omnivision movie on the Space Definitive Treatment although the cancer tissue is obviously Shuttle, "The Dream Is Alive," is a fan­ The third component of therapy is different from normal tissue, nearly all tastic story! [See review in Jan.-Feb. definitive treatment. Once the tumor of the chemicals that are poisons to 1986 Fusion, p. 63.] is located in the sights of the broncho­ cancer are also poisons to normal tis­ The Omni theater in St. Paul, Minn, scope, Balchum switches to another sue; there is a problem of creating the began showingthis movie ironically the laser frequency, produced by a red specificity needed in the treatment. day of the Shuttle tragedy. . . . ruby laser, and focuses the laser on the In contrast, for example, bacteria are The response of the public has been tumor. This frequency is differentially far more different from normal human overwhelming. The performances have absorbed by the HpD-containing tu­ tissue than is cancer, so it is relatively been sold out. They have even added mor cells many orders of magnitude easy to find substances, such as the performances on the weekend. The more than by normal surrounding tis­ many antibiotics commonly used, that American population is hooked on the sue. will kill bacteria and not harm humans. space program. The red light does not kill the tumor Thus far, biochemistry has failed to Andy Olson by heating it, but actually causes the produce the required specificity need­ Heron Lake, Minnesota Research Report FUSION May-June 1986 35 The Wonders of URANUS

After traveling 3 billion miles and 8V2 years, Voyager 2 has provided us with the first close-up views of Uranus. Retooled along the way to provide maximum data, the remarkably successful Voyager is a symbol of the U.S. space program's mission to extend civilization throughout the universe.

fter a 3-billion mile journey taking more than eight this very unusual body in the solar system and found out years, on Jan. 24, the Voyager 2 spacecraft made its that indeed this giant planet does have a magnetic field, A closest approach to Uranus, the seventh planet from differentiated rings, at least 15 moons, and a very unusual the Sun. For the first time, mankind had a close look at climate and weather system. We report here on the Voy­ ager 2 findings just a few days after Jan. 24. Uranus has long been an enigma. Rotating on its side and No longer a mystery, the rings of Uranus are revealed here with only featureless cloud tops, not even the length of its as a continuous distribution of small particles. Voyagertook day was known. The veil was lifted when Voyager 2 flew this image Jan. 27 while in the shadow of Uranus, at a dis- past the planet with all instruments working perfectly. In fance of 147,000 miles and a resolution of about 20 miles. only a few hours, Voyager revealed not only the length of

36 May-June 1986 FUSION the Uranus day, but a strangely tilted magnetic field, a new larger existing antennas were arrayed. family of rings made of dust, and moons with a bizarre When the antennas are arrayed, the same data are re­ hybrid of geologic features not seen anywhere else in the ceived at a number of antennas and electronically com­ solar system. bined to increase the signal strength. This allowed a data The most striking and indeed unique characteristic of rate of 21,600 bps at Uranus. The data rate determines the Uranus is the fact that it is inclined 98 degrees on its axis of degree of resolution of the objects the spacecraft is observ­ rotation. Rather than lying perpendicular to the plane of ing und the number of images that can be relayed to Earth. the ecliptic, its axis lies close to the plane, dipping slightly It takes nearly three hours for signals from Uranus to below it, as seen by the approaching Voyager spacecraft. reach the Earth. During the precious six hours Voyager was to be close to the rings and moons of Uranus and to the Data from Billions of Miles planet itself, scientists wanted to squeeze as many images The Voyager that arrived at Uranus on Jan. 24,1986 was as possible out of the onboard systems. During its previous not entirely the same spacecraft that left the Earth on Aug. encounters, Voyager had transmitted eight bits of data for 20, 1977. Although the 11 scientific instruments and cam­ each picture element, or pixel. Each pixel contained 256 eras onboard the spacecraft were the same, scientists and levels of gray, to show the finest possible detail. These engineers had reconfigured the equipment and enhanced images were then computer-enhanced to show colors. its capabilities on Voyager and on the ground in order to At Uranus, instead of transmitting the full eight bits of get a quality of data at Uranus comparable to the earlier data for each image, only the difference between the encounters with Saturn and Jupiter. brightness of successive pixels was transmitted. This image The Voyager spacecraft, originally called the Mariner Ju­ compression was accomplished by programming one of piter/Saturn mission, has performed beyond all expecta­ the six onboard computers to preprocess all the imaging tions of the scientists who planned this mission more than data, prior to transmission to Earth, to send only the differ­ a decade ago. Since the dawn of the space age, man had ences in brightness. This image data compression, which dreamed of taking sophisticated instruments to parts of the has been developed in the years since the Voyager was solar system that man cannot get to yet himself, to see what launched, resulted in a 60 precent reduction in the number is there and to discover more about the evolution and de­ of bits needed per image, or a 40 percent increase in the velopment of the solar system within which the Earth is amount of new information able to be transmitted. placed. Voyager 2 has lived up to that dream at Uranus and This general technique is also being developed for Earth- will now go on to meet up with Neptune in 1989. orbiting remote-sensing systems, where data onboard that When Voyager arrived at Uranus, it was twice as far away are not useful, such as views of Earth shrouded in clouds, from the Earth than it had been at Saturn. The strength of could be preprocessed, sorted out, and perhaps stored, the radio signal used to transmit its photographs and other but not transmitted to Earth. data to Earth was, therefore, greatly diminished. Due to the Another major change made in Voyager was done aboard greater distance, the signal was spread out, or dispersed, the spacecraft itself. Because of the very low light levels in to a much greater extent. Therefore, to collect a signal that the outer reaches of the solar system, scientists knew that was strong enough to carry substantial data and could be long exposures would be necessary to get the required distinguished from background noise, engineers had to signal-to-noise ratios needed to make the images. But the greatly increase the data collection area on the ground. exposures became so long—as much as 96 seconds at Ur­ This was accomplished by connecting together, or array­ anus—that the motion of the spacecraft itself would begin ing, the antennas that receive the Voyager's radio signals. to smear the object in the image (when Voyager arrived at NASA operates three complexes in its Deep Space Net­ Uranus, it was traveling at about 45,000 miles per hour). It work—in California, Spain, and Australia. Because of the is similar to the problem of taking a photograph of the geometrical relationship between the position of Voyager scenery from a fast-moving train, without blurring the im­ and Earth at the time of the Uranus flyby, the signals col­ age. lected in the southern hemisphere traveled through less of To compensate for this motion and allow the cameras to the Earth's atmosphere, increasing the strength of the sig­ track the object with the camera shutters open, it was nec­ nal. Therefore, the antennas in Australia played the major essary to move the scan platform holding the cameras in a role in collecting the Uranus data. direction to compensate for the motion. The scan platform At Jupiter, the spacecraft had a data transmission rate of worked only partially, and Voyager compensated by using 115,200 bits per second (bps). At Saturn, the rate had on-board rockets to slew the entire craft. This image motion dropped to 44,800 bps. And at Uranus, if no changes had compensation procedure had been tried experimentally been made in the system, the rate would have been about during the observation of one of the moons of Saturn and one fourth that at Saturn. Without arraying the antennas on was used successfully at Uranus. Earth, fewer than half the observations planned at Uranus could have been performed and the data returned to Earth. The Grand Tour of the Solar System The 210-foot diameter NASA antenna dish near Canberra, Only once in 177 years do the outer planets of the solar Australia, was linked with the Parkes radio astronomy an­ system line up in such a way that a spacecraft sent from tenna of the same size, 200 miles away, to increase the Earth could possibly visit more than two of these planets on collection area of Voyager's signals, in effect doubling the one journey. This once-in-a-lifetime possibility was de­ aperture size. At NASA's other two sites, the smaller and scribed by NASA mission planners as a "grand tour of the

FUSION May-June 1986 37 Voyager 2 and its predecessor Voyager 1 are the most so­ phisticated robotic spacecraft ever flown. Their brief en­ counters with Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus have provided more knowledge of the planets than has been learned in the last 200 years of astronomy.

solar system." That is why the Voyager mission was—and had to be—launched in 1977. As Dr. Bradford Smith, head of the Voyager imaging team, put it, "the last President who had an opportunity to do anything like the Grand Tour was Thomas Jefferson." Therefore, although NASA budget cuts were mandated by the Nixon administration in the early 1970s, scientists were determined not to give up the first after its flyby in 1979, the push it got from passing close to chance in the space age—and the only opportunity in their that vast planet was equal to the velocity boost it had ob­ lifetimes—to make such a grand tour. tained at launch. From there, it continued on to Saturn, The attraction of the grand tour is not just that man could where it arrived in 1981. In 1989, Voyager will arrive at Nep­ visit four planets with one spacecraft. An additional moti­ tune, but in order to get the best gravity assist to send it on vation was that a trip only to Uranus at any other time would its way, Voyager had to fly on a trajectory that took it within take about 30 years, leaving from Earth and going directly 30,000 miles of the Uranian moon Miranda, making it one to Uranus, since the planet is 1.8 billion miles from Earth of the closest flybys of the entire mission. and the spacecraft has a limited initial speed because of the In its 8'/2-year lifetime, Voyager 2 has shown us many propulsion systems available. firsts—the first evidence of active volcanism outside of the (Of course, there were some myopic mortals on whom Earth, on Jupiter's moon lo; the thin ring of dust and ice these facts made no impression. When Voyager made its around that planet; new moons; and the atmospheric closest encounter with Saturn on Aug. 25, 1981, Senator structures of the mysterious Titan and Jupiter's red spot. At William Proxmire commented on the television show Saturn, Voyager revealed a breathtaking array of countless "Nightline" that the Voyager mission was not necessary. rings, still-unexplained structures and changes in them, "The planet will be there for a long, long time," he stated. and again, more small moons. We have "fiscal problems," and "we don't have to do it in our lifetimes. It can be done over years.") Extending Human Knowledge The strategy of the grand tour was to employ a method Voyager's major scientific and communications systems, suggested by German space pioneer Hermann Oberth in designed for a 5-year, two-planet mission, have performed the 1920s—a gravity assist. This involves sending the space­ perfectly at Uranus, 8V2 years after launch. The scientific craft on a trajectory to each planetary flyby so it is posi­ instruments aboard Voyager have been investigating both tioned precisely when it gets there to pick up a "push" that planets and satellites during its brief encounters as well as will propel it on to the next planet. the interplanetary environment in between flybys. For example, when the Voyager spacecraft left Jupiter One class of instruments is the optical scanners, which

38 May-June 1986 FUSION must be movable and are mounted on the spacecraft's scan of the instruments. After two days, the platform apparently platform. They have narrow fields of view and must be corrected itself and was again movable. The spacecraft is accurately pointed. The spectral information they collect programmed so that if it has any potentially life-threatening includes radiant energy in the visible wavelengths, infrared failures, it automatically puts itself into a "safe" mode and emissions, ultraviolet light, and polarized light. awaits commands from Earth. The photopolarimeter, which observes the way light is polarized by the chemicals and aerosols in planetary at­ The Surprises of Uranus mospheres, has provided data on the composition of the Scientists had hoped to find clues to Uranus's keeled clouds and surfaces of the planets and their satellites. Mea­ over spin axis by observing its moons. According to a widely surements in the infrared also reveal chemical composi­ held theory, Uranus tilted after a collision or near collision tions, as well as the temperature and heat balance of the with an Earth-sized body. But the Uranian moons bear no objects under observations. scars of this early trauma. Two television-type cameras mounted on the scan plat­ The moons. I n the days prior to the flyby, much attention form provide the magnificent photographs produced by was focused on the prediction that at least 18 moons would the mission. The images are sent to Earth in shades of gray probably be discovered around Uranus. The source of this and then color is added through computer enhancement. rather exact prediction was the theory that planetary rings, A second general class of instruments aboard the spacecraft of which Uranus was known at the time to have nine, main­ has the job of sensing magnetic fields and fluxes of charged tain their structure with the help of small "shepherding" particles as Voyager passes through them. They are fixed to moons. As was known from before the Voyager 2 flyby, the the body of the spacecraft, unlike the optical scanners, and rings of Uranus are extremely narrow. Without some active by combining their data, information on planetary magnet­ organizing action, one might expect the particles to ran­ ic fields, Sun-planet interactions, and planet-moon inter­ domly hit each other, causing the rings to smear out into actions have been measured. Two of the four magnetome­ an undifferentiated plane. Two shepherding moons would ters carried on Voyager are located on a boom to separate keep a ring intact by forcing the particles into a zone be­ them from the spacecraft's magnetic field. The other two, tween the moonlets; thus, the prediction of 18 moons for which are higher field instruments, are mounted on the the nine rings. spacecraft body. The total weight of the magnetic fields Shepherding moons were in fact found around the epsi- investigation package, which has revolutionized our lon ring, the largest and outermost ring. But no other shep- knowledge about the magnetic structures around the giant planets, is 12.3 pounds. A third family of scientific instruments concerns radio astronomy and plasma wave experiments and uses a long antenna to listen for planetary emissions. Radio signals from the spacecraft are used to gather information on the iono­ spheres and atmospheres of planets and their satellites and to track data to chart gravitational fields that affect Voyag­ er's course. Voyager sends all of its data to the waiting scientists on Earth via nuclear-powered radio transmissions. These radio signals allow scientists to make precise measurements of the spacecraft's trajectory as it passes near a body. Post- flight analyses then determine the mass of a body, as well as its density and shape. The rings of Saturn and Uranus were explored by radio signals from Voyager, as scientists measured the scattering of the signals as they traveled through the rings, from be­ hind the planets. These provided crucial data on the ring mass, particle size distribution, and ring structure. Plasma studies are investigating the properties of the solar wind with increasing distance from the Sun, as well as the mag- netospheres of the giant planets. This Jan. 21 image of the rings of Uranus was taken at a Voyager has performed masterfully over its 3-billion mile distance of 2.5 million miles and a resolution of about 22 journey. Just a year after launch, and before any of its en­ miles. Two small moons can be seen on either side of the counters, the spacecraft's computer-command subsystem bright epsilon ring. As with the rings of Saturn, one of the automatically switched to the back-up receiver, when a hypotheses was that each ring would have two shepherding problem arose in the primary system, and it has functioned moons to keep it in line, but this has proven to be false. The on that back-up since that time. ring structures of both planets cannot be understood simply The only significant problem encountered by the space­ by looking at the interaction of the individual components; craft was during its flight behind Saturn in 1981. The scan scientists will have to look at the global geometry of the platform jammed in one axis, preventing further pointing planet.

FUSION May-June 1986 39 herding moons have yet been found around either the eight previously known rings or the newfound tenth ring. Per­ haps some will be found as the ring photos are processed and enhanced, but Uranus has another family of rings whose dynamics will not be explained with embedded moonlets. The Moons of Uranus The rings. After the close flyby, Voyager turned its cam­ eras back toward the ring system to see how they would With the exception of Umbriel, which is unusual in a look backlit by the Sun. By measuring the interference number of respects, the moons of Uranus show less geo­ caused by the rings to Voyager's radio signals, scientists logical activity with increasing distance from the planet. The determined that the average particle size of the 10 rings is case of Umbriel, surprisingly, illustrates the point. Voyager about 1 meter. This is a much bigger particle than found in 2 passed nearest to the inner moon, Miranda, which has Saturn's rings. Surely there were smaller particles than this, the most varied landscape of any moon so far observed in but repeated attempts to photograph dust in the rings failed. the solar system. Mission geologist Harold Masursky noted Finally, with the angle of sunlight just right and with a 96 that one might hypothesize that the tamer surface features second exposure that made the background stars streak, a seen on the outer moons might be a camera-resolution host of dust rings were observed. effect. But Umbriel, which has the blandest surface, is the These Uranian rings more closely resemble the rings of middle of the five moons, and the outer moons, Titania and Saturn. A continuous sheet of dust is organized into nu­ Oberon, show some tectonic activity. So camera resolution merous rings. Most unexpected was that on first seeing the is not a factor here. dust rings, no one could match them up with the 10 large Umbriel is unusual primarily in that it is out of character rings. It is as if there are two distinct populations of rings with the other large moons. True, it has an exceptionally superimposed on each other. The magnetic field of the dark surface, reflecting only 15 percent of the sunlight strik­ planet may play a role in stripping the dust from the 10 large ing it. Like the dark material of the rings and other lunar rings and shaping it into a ring system. surfaces, we are probably seeing an organic compound In other ring discoveries, the epsilon ring was found to whose parent is methane. But Umbriel's surface is other­ have two components. There is so far no evidence of kinks wise what planetary scientists had expected all the moons or "braids" as there are in Saturn's outer "F" ring. Beyond to look like. It has an "old" surface; that is, it shows a record the epsilon ring several ring arcs were seen. It is not now of ancient meteor bombardment. Geologists call this a good known if these are part of the dust rings. The magnetosphere. Until the Voyager's flyby, no one knew if Uranus had a magnetic field. At a distance of 320,000 miles from the planet, Voyager passed through Uranus's bowshock, the region of impact of the million mile an hour solar wind on the planet's magnetic field. The solar plasma stops abruptly, with some of the plasma leaking into the magnetosphere, but most of it sliding around it. Unlike any other planet in the solar system, the magnetic poles of Uranus are inclined an incredible 55° to the axis of rotation. On Earth this would be as if the north magnetic pole were over Los Angeles, and the south magnetic pole over the Indian Ocean near Madagascar. The strength of the magnetic field is about 15 percent less than that of the Earth. Not only the orientation but also the source of Uranus's magnetic field is a mystery. According to the generally ac­ cepted theory, a planet's magnetic field is generated by a dynamo in the planetary interior. On Earth, for instance, large-scale convective motions of molten metals in the core generate electric currents across a primordial magnetic field, thus amplifying the magnetic field. Without some kind of dynamo, the primordial field would have long ago dissipat­ ed. Uranus does not appear to have enough internal heat to support a molten metal dynamo in the planetary core. An ocean of liquid methane, ammonia, and water probably lies over the solid core of Uranus. If there is no dynamo in the core, could there be one in the oceans? Dynamo theorists, with the help of organic chemists, will explore possible models in the coming months. A model of the trailing magnetic field will take time to

40 May-June 1986 FUSION crater population, with large craters from the period of the crater flooded with a dark, probably organic material. Ariel early days of the solar system and a dwindling number of similarly shows evidence that it has not been a dead body smaller craters added over time. There are a few young, for all its existence. crisp, walled craters. The real surprise, however, is the surface of Miranda. No Only in one small region does Umbriel show kinship with other body in the solar system has as rich a collection of its neighbors. On the limb of the moon, almost out of view, scarfs, rifts, layered terrain, flow patterns, and craters. Being sits a large, anomalously light, ringlike structure. Perhaps it the closest of the large moons to Uranus, one naturally is volcanic, but that is out of keeping with the rest of the suspects that the source of energy for this activity lies in surface. Perhaps it is a large meteor crater, but no other of gravitational interactions between the outer moons and its craters are light colored. So, for the time being, the ring Uranus. Recall that Jupiter's closest large moon, lo, was remains a mystery. found to have active volcanoes driven by tidal heating. But Titania, the most distant of the moons, has a fairly stan­ lo is a much larger moon than Miranda, and Jupiter is a dard crater population, but the surface has other features much larger planet than Uranus. that show a more active history. A great rift valley system No one really expected much in the way of geologically runs for hundreds of kilometers. At one point it is about 75 active surfaces on the Uranian moons because, first, they km wide. Its sunlit wall shines unusually bright. Perhaps the are relatively small and thus must have cooled long ago, forces that created the rift also released water vapor that and second, their tidal interactions would be minimal. This formed frost on the cliffs. One large crater has a valley combination of unexplained energetics and surfaces of pre­ running across it, thus dating the fault after the impact. sumably organic compounds will make them an exciting Oberon has a mountain six kilometers high and a large subject of inquiry over the coming months.

(a) Miranda (left), the innermost moon of patterns, as are many extensional impact craters less than 3 miles wide. Uranus, is roughly 300 miles in diame­ (pulled-apart) faults. Some of these The entire closeup area is 140 miles ter with a varied geologic terrain. This show very large cliffs, ranging from .3 across. is a computer-assembled mosaic of to 3 miles in height—higher than the Photo (b) shows a bewildering vari­ many of the high-resolution frames walls of the Grand Canyon on Earth. ety of fractures, grooves, and craters, obtained by Voyager 2 at a distance that The missing piece of the composite will as well as features of different albedos ranged from 18,730 to 25,030 miles at a be inserted into the image once the (reflectances). The grooves reach resolution that ranged from 1,840 to complicated processing can be com­ depths of a few miles and expose ma­ 2,430 feet. pleted. terials of different albedos. The great On Miranda, the ridges and valleys Photo (a) is a high-resolution close- variety of directions of fracture and of one province are cut off against the up of the "chevron" area. Cutting troughs and the different densities of boundary of the next province. Proba­ across the bands are sinuous scarps, impact craters on them signify a long, bly compressional (pushed-together) probably faults. Superimposed on both complex geologic evolution of this sat­ folded ridges are seen in curvilinear types of terrain are many bowl-shaped ellite.

FUSION May-June 1986 41 portion of the planet, so sunlight must play some unknown catalytic role. The Atmosphere. The infrared spectrum of the atmo­ sphere fits very closely to a model containing 10 to 15 per­ cent helium. Methane is a major component of the atmo­ sphere, and combined with other organic compounds in the presence of sunlight has created high-level haze and smog that block a clear view of the lower clouds. The temperature spectrum of the clouds is bizarre. At thin, high altitudes over the sunlit pole the temperature is 750° K (850° F), as measured by the ultraviolet spectrometer. Over the unlit pole, which has not been exposed to sunlight for 20 years, the temperature is 1,000° K (1,340° F)! Clearly, there is some energy source in the planet not directly de­ pendent on the Sun. The lower, primary cloud temperatures are a cold 50 to 65° K(-370to -343 degrees F). The temperature structure This Voyager picture of Uranus shows a discrete cloud (low­ is surprising here, too. The equator and the poles are both er left) that looks like a bright streak. The picture is a highly about 65°K, and the midlatitudes are the coldest, at 50°K. processed composite of three images obtained Jan. 14, when Even in high resolution closeups, the visible surface of the spacecraft was 8 million miles from the planet. This Uranus remained rather featureless. One cyclonic feature cloud is the most prominent feature seen in a series of resembled those of Jupiter and Saturn. Scientists at the Jet images designed to track atmospheric motions. The occa­ Propulsion Laboratory, the headquarters for the Voyager sional donut-shaped features are shadows cast by dust in Mission, were able to track a few cloud features through the camera optics, which are exaggerated because of the several rotations. The rotational speed varied with latitude processing necessary to bring out the faint features on the but averaged about 16 hours. planet. The winds are prograde, meaning that they turn in the same direction as the planet spins, which is highly unusual. construct from the enormous amount of data transmitted. The wind speeds are more than 200 miles per hour, twice (Voyager stayed in this region for three days after the flyby.) that of Earth's jet streams. The high speed prograde winds An early hypothesis is that the magnetic field behind the led to an initial underestimate of the length of the Uranian planet rolls up on itself, according to Voyager Project sci­ day. The actual value of 16.8 hours was determined by mea­ entist Ed Stone, "like a sausage." suring radio periodicities in the revolving magnetosphere. An aurora was observed over the magnetic pole on the What would Uranus look like if you were there? Floating unlit side of Uranus. This was detected with Voyager's ul­ on the cloudtops of Uranus, you would see a sky where the traviolet sensor. This sensor also detected a new type of Sun would tightly circle the north pole, never setting, just light emission from the atmosphere called electroglow. The as our North Star never sets at night. It would circle the sky atmosphere can absorb sunlight and reemit it as "airglow." once every 16.8 hours, but at the pole, daylight would ex­ Electroglow emission is stronger than could be caused by tend for 42 years, half of the 84 years it takes Uranus to orbit the absorption of sunlight. Yet it is only evident in the sunlit the Sun.

Uranus: Known to Man Only 105 Years Because of its great distance from Earth, Uranus was objects in the solar system. As an example, the outer­ the first planet discovered with the use of a telescope; most epsilon ring reflects only about 5 percent of the the others were known to ancient astronomers who ob­ incident light from the Sun. served them with the naked eye. First thought to be a Uranus's discoverer Herschel continued to build big­ comet by its discoverer, William Herschel, in 1781, Ur­ ger and better telescopes, and in 1787 he discovered its anus remained a mystery for decades. It was not until moons Titania and Oberon; Ariel and Umbriel were nearly a century later that its rings became known. In found in 1851 by English astronomer William Lassell. 1977, a group of astronomers aboard the Kuiper Air­ (Herschel's son John named all of moons after figures in borne Observatory noted that when they viewed a star English literature.) It was another hundred years before as it disappeared behind the planet, the star "blinked" the next moon was discovered: Miranda was observed five times before reaching the planet's surface. in 1948 by American astronomer Gerald Kuiper. And be­ From this evidence, it was concluded that Uranus had fore Voyager reached Uranus, scientists had observed slight rings around it, and the number was later defined five other small moons, the largest approximately 1,000 as nine. These rings have been described as the darkest miles in diameter.

42 May-June 1986 FUSION The United States needs a "biological SDI," a crash program to advance laser and spectroscopy research to the point that we can screen for and eliminate the AIDS virus and other deadly diseases.

The flow chamber is at center, right, with the laser beam intersecting the stream of liquid perpendicular to it. The flare in the center is the second intersection point. At top right is a probe measuring the flu­ orescence of the chromosome cells in the liquid. The stream of liquid is broken into droplets by the metal rod (bottom).

Defeating Aids: Hop Lasers Can Help by Wolfgang Lillge, M.D. year ago, we wrote that spinoffs from the laser de­ fense program, along with other recent advances, A had brought medical science to a point where man can now conquer many of the leading killer diseases and significantly extend the productive human life span.1 Spe­ cifically, we mentioned the flow cytometer/circular inten­ sity differential scattering technique (CIDS), developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, a unique machine to iden­ tify viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms with high specificity and maximum speed. CIDS has the potential to detect retroviruses, like AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), that have become amalgamated to the cell structure. Today, as AIDS threatens to decimate the world popula­ tion, the development of CIDS and other advanced medical technologies is a question of life and death. We need a strategic defense initiative for biology and medicine, simi­ lar to President Reagan's SDI, whose fundamentals are based on the same type of technologies needed to shoot down incoming missiles or to control a fusion plasma—namely, lasers and spectroscopy. Translated into the scientific language of AIDS research, this means that we need instruments capable of identify­ ing—and possibly also killing—the deadly AIDS virus. The AIDS virus is a particularly effective killer because it has found a way to overwhelm the immune system (the body's defense against disease) and can hide inside the B-lympho- cytes, nerve cells, and also lung cells. Scientists have to find out exactly how the virus is capable of doing this and then identify the virus reliably, in whatever form it may camou­ flage itself. To do this, the flow cytometer/CIDS technology Los Alamos National Laboratory will have to be upgraded to a high-resolution capability, Figure 1 especially to root out the the AIDS virus after it is integrated SCHEMATIC OF A FLOW CYTOMETER into the human genome. Ce//s strained to identify a particular cellular property, such as the amount of DNA, enter at the top. The cells A Revolution in Diagnostics are dispersed into a single-cell suspension in the con­ The CIDS system involves advances in two new technol­ ducting medium (normally a saline solution). An elec­ ogies developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New trically conducting sheath fluid is added at the top to Mexico. In the flow cytometer, cells or individual mole­ insure precise sample location in the flow cell. The cules are suspended in liquid, stained with dye, and passed laser beam enters the chamber from the right and is through a flow chamber at rates of up to 20,000 cells per focused into an elliptically shaped slit of light to excite second. As they pass through the chamber, the cells are hit each fluorescently stained cell as it passes through by laser beams of one or different frequencies. A computer the laser beam. The fluorescent light is analyzed to then records the absorption or scattering of the laser light measure the amount of fluorescent dye in each cell. (the fluorescence signal intensities of molecules excited by As each cell passes through the laser beam, it also the lasers) for each individual cell. The flow cytometer can causes a scattering of the laser light that can provide measure cell size, DNA content, the permeability of cell additional information on cellular properties. The pie­ membranes to particular molecules, the movement of re­ zoelectric transducer is coupled mechanically to the ceptors on a cell surface, chemical reaction rates within flow chamber and tuned to about 40,000 hertz to vi­ cells and more. brate the chamber and break the emerging stream In conjunction with another emerging technology—an into uniform droplets at a rate of about 40,000 droplets instrument called the angular-scanning CIDS spectrome­ per second. The electrode can be charged rapidly to ter—the flow cytometer can identify particular bacteria and 75 volts so that droplets can be electrically charged as viruses in an order of minutes. CIDS uses left and right they break off from the main stream. The charged polarized laser light to identify a specific "signature" of the droplets are deflected by an electrical field supplied microorganism being processed through the flow cham­ to the deflection plates. Thus, a group of droplets can ber. be charged either positively or negatively and sepa­ In addition to their unique application to AIDS research, rated from the uncharged stream. these two technologies will revolutionize all microbiology testing relevant to clinical use. Infectious diseases are still

44 May-June 1986 FUSION a major cause of death, largely because no present method purified, which again is possible only with advanced micro­ of microbial identification is rapid and specific enough to biological techniques. enable the physician, at the very onset of the infectious The new technology of the flow cytometer/CIDS over­ disease, to begin a specific antimicrobial treatment of the comes these drawbacks. With CIDS, it will be possible to patient. There are several infectious diseases in which early identify the presence of the AIDS virus directly in blood and specific intervention can save the life of the patient; sera, and possibly even intracellularly. In current methods for example, the viral disease herpes simplex encephalitis. of detection, the identification of the virus itself is only the Treated early, more than half of those afflicted with this last step after a series of different antibody tests (ELISA, disease can be saved; when diagnosis is delayed, even the Western blot, and so on), and can be performed only by most intensive care comes too late. growing the virus in a cell culture. This is not only very costly and time consuming, but, more important, the procedure The Problem of AIDS Testing might turn out not to be specific enough. Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are only be­ ginning to apply this technology to AIDS virus identifica­ How the Flow Cytometer and CIDS Work tion. If successful, this would be a giant step forward in the Los Alamos work with the flow cytometer began in the effort to begin a mass screening of the population, yielding 1960s to study the effect of radiation on cells, and then was accurate figures on the spread of the disease and a specific­ broadened to include study of cancer and the immune sys­ ity of detection that would permit reliable identification and tem. Over the years, its precision and speed have been precise study of even small genetic changes of the virus vastly improved (Figure 1). genome. Circular intensity differential scattering, an even newer The several different AIDS tests that have been in use for technology, is one of the few really new approaches to about two years are all merely indirect tests; they are based microbial identification in the past several decades. The on the identification of antibodies against the HTLV-II l/LAV method takes only minutes and processes approximately 5 virus that the immune system has produced after it has been x 105 organisms per milliliter. According to the scientists exposed to the AIDS disease. Although useful as a rough working on the project at Los Alamos, further modifications preliminary routine measure to identify AIDS antibody car­ soon could increase the sensitivity of the instrument by at riers and to screen blood banks, these AIDS antibody tests least an order of magnitude. have several problems that are unique to this disease: As of mid-1985, several future generations of CIDS instru­ (1) The AIDS virus's protein coat, against which the im­ ments were planned. The first machine was a static instru­ mune system produces antibodies, mutates 100 times faster ment, designed to identify bacteria in pure culture or virus­ than the influenza virus; hence, the test may not have suf­ es in typical clinical specimens in a static cuvette system. A ficient "resolution power," since it is tuned to a class of second-generation machine, now operational, employs the antibodies that the patient may no longer be producing. same principle with the addition of a flow cytometer, so (2) Recent findings indicate that the number of AIDS car­ that organisms can be examined one at a time. A schematic riers who have no antibodies at all is much higher than of an angular-scanning CIDS spectrometer is shown in Fig­ heretofore suspected. Such persons would appear in the ure 2. antibody test as "false negatives." Light from a laser or any other appropriate source passes (3) On the other hand, in order not to produce too many through the polarizer and then through a photoelastic "false positive" results, the test must be highly specific and modulator, which modulates the polarization at a selected

Figure 2 ANGULAR-SCANNING CIDS SPECTROMETER The chromosomes in the sample stream pass lengthwise through the laser beam. The deflector collects the fluorescence that is emitted, and then the profile of the chromosome is convolved with the laser profile. The result­ ant signal is outputted at the de­ tector.

i(t=x/v)

FUSION May-June 1986 45 frequency. This alternately left and right circularly polar­ object (that is, the virus or bacterium). Identification of ized light then impinges on the sample in a cuvette, and the microorganisms has been tried before by way of total light light is differentially scattered. The detection arm rotates scattering, depending only on the size, shape, and average under computer control, stopping at the specified angle refractive index of microorganisms. However, this ap­ and taking data for a specified length of time. The detector proach has not proven useful in the laboratory. In contrast, also contains a photoelastic modulator, a polarizer, and a CIDS uses right and left circularly polarized light to hit the photomultiplier tube, in order to measure the intensities of microbial sample; the scattered light is thus enriched, and the scattered left and right circularly polarized light. changed in several components, creating a specific "sig­ The key feature of the CIDS technology is its use of left nature" of the sample. and right polarized light. This has two basic potential appli­ Preliminary knowledge exists about the physical basis of cations: First, circular dichroism, which is based on the these measurements. According to C.T. Gregg of Los Ala­ differential absorption of left and right circularly polarized mos National Laboratory, CIDS measures "the three-di­ light and occurs only at a specific absorption band of the mensional 'packaging' of helical molecules, largely that of molecule in question; and second, in contrast to this, the the microbial genome." What is also known is that the CIDS differential scattering of left and right circularly polarized spectrum depends upon the pitch and the radius of the light (CIDS), which occurs throughout the spectrum, rather scattering helix. than only at absorption bands. CIDS was first observed as A typical CIDS spectrum is shown in Figure 3, taken with an artifact of circular dichroism measurements of large par­ highly purified and supercoiled plasmid DNA as a function ticles because it produced long tails in the circular dichro­ of wavelength (lowest curve). The upper curves represent ism spectrum that extended from the absorption bands in the same DNA treated for different time intervals with the ultraviolet to the visible part of the spectrum. DNAse, which uncoils the helical structure of the molecule. CIDS is given, then, as the amount of light scattered when These results are finally compared with the CIDS spectrum the incident beam is left circularly polarized minus that of calf thymus DNA (top curve), which is used in the labo­ scattered when the incident beam is right circularly polar­ ratory for short, linear fragments of DNA. ized, divided by the total amount of light scattered by the The real potential of this new instrument must be seen in the fact that one microbial sample yields a varying amount of data, depending on the wavelength of the laser light used, the scattering angle, and so on. So far, only a tiny fraction of this potentially highly specific signature of a virus, bacteria, or an organic macromolecule can be ob­ tained and processed. The procedure for expressing the CIDS signature for any particle sent through the machine is as follows: All the different measurements can be expressed mathematically as elements of a so-called Mueller matrix, which consists of 16 elements, and each of these matrix elements can be determined by measuring different frequencies in the out­ put signal. Essentially, all polarization properties of the light beam at each point of the instrument are describable by the Mueller matrix; that is, the scattering of light from an object at a particular angle and wavelength. Figure 3 In effect, CIDS itself is only one component of what should SPECTRA OF SCATTERED LIGHT FROM DNA be described as multiparameter light scattering, which re­ The spectrum of scattered light at a 90° scattering an­ flects 16 different polarization elements. These include gle as a function of wavelength for highly supercoiled combinations of polarization, circular polarization, angles DNA from a plasmid, a tiny piece of DNA material of scattering, upshifts and downshifts of frequencies (Stokes (bottom curve). The three middle curves show the and anti-Stokes lines), and so on. These are entered into spectra after treatment with the enzyme DNAse (which the Mueller matrix to define the signature for a particular dissolves the bonds of the DNA, and thereby decreas­ virus or bacteria. es the coiling) for various periods of time (in minutes). The first-generation CIDS machine, the one on which the The spectrum of calf thymus DNA (short fragments) is Los Alamos scientists have carried out all the published shown for comparison(top curve). The vertical axis experiments, is based on only one single element of the shows the amount of light scattered when the inci­ Mueller matrix; yet, even so, very clear results have been dent beam is left circularly polarized minus that scat­ obtained. This shows the unique potentials inherent in this tered when the incident beam is right circularly polar­ technology. As soon as scientists learn to master all 16 ele­ ized, divided by the total amount of light scattered by ments of this "spectroscopic language," we will have a lex­ the object. icon of all the different viral, bacterial, or molecular signa­

Source: Gregg et al. Rapid Methods and Automation in Microbiology and Im­ tures that serve as references to identify any mixture of munology, p. 187, Habermehl, ed. Springer-Veriag, Heidelberg, to be published. microbial samples in any laboratory in the world. On the basis of only one element of the Mueller matrix,

46 May-June 1986 FUSION Figure 4 Figure 5 SPECTRA OF SCATTERED LIGHT FROM FLU VIRUS SPECTRA OF SCATTERED LIGHT These are spectra of three type A influenza virus vac­ FROM DENGUE VIRUSES cine preparations as a function of a scattering angle at These are spectra of four types of dengue fever virus 488 nm. Good discrimination is obtained among these vaccines at 360 nm. The best resolution among the three virus preparations around 60, 110, and 150°. four viral vaccine types is obtained near 30°.

Source: Gregg et al. Rapid Methods and Automation in Microbiology and Im­ Source: Gregg et al. Rapid Methods and Automation in Microbiology and Im­ munology, p.189, Habermehl, ed. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, to be published. munology, p. 190. Habermehl, ed. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, to be published.

C.T. Gregg and his colleague G.C. Salzman have already demonstrated the DNA spectra shown in Figure 3. With this same relatively "primitive" technology, they even succeed­ ed in producing different signatures from three influenza virus strains with a running time of about four minutes for each virus preparation (Figure 4). Other published data from successful experiments showed a clear differentiation between four types of den­ gue fever virus vaccines (Figure 5) and four types of en­ cephalitis virus vaccines (Figure 6). In all these cases, at a specific scattering angle, a very clear resolution can be ob­ tained. Another use of the flow cytometer, with longer-range implications, is a project of Los Alamos and Lawrence Liv- ermore National Laboratory to collect a complete library of the human genome. The library would be a stockpile of complete genes and such fragments of genes that deter­ Figure 6 mine specific metabolic processes in the cells, tissues, or ENCEPHALITIS VIRUS organs. The fragments are separated in the flow cytometer These are spectra for four types of encephalitis virus and then genetic engineering is used to insert them into vaccines. The region of maximum resolution is again bacteria and produce quantities of the gene product. In the about 3(f. future, it might be possible with this method to cure hered­ Source: Gregg et al. Rapid Methods and Automation in Microbiology and Im­ itary metabolic diseases that often lack the functioning of munology, p. 191, Habermehl, ed. Springer-Vertag, Heidelberg, to be published. one single enzyme, or to artifically insert genetically engi­ neered cells into a diabetes patient to produce the neces­ sary insulin. Now, Salzman at Los Alamos is building a CIDS machine These preliminary findings have an immediate practical that will allow measurement of up to 8 of the 16 Mueller significance. In the clinical laboratory, for example, it is very matrix elements, each of which provides additional infor­ difficult to distinguish serologically between St. Louis en­ mation for microbial information. cephalitis virus and dengue fever virus. The CIDS spectra An especially critical question that is not sufficiently re­ of the vaccine preparations as they were generated by the solved is the choice of the right wavelength of the incident Los Alamos scientists, however, are very different. The ar­ laser beam. It seems that the range of 633 nanometers from ray of possible measurements with the fully developed CIDS the helium-neon laser that Gregg has been using does not method provides a "resolving power" for microbial identi­ produce ideal results. However, using laser light of too fication whose potential is just beginning to be tapped. short a wavelength, down to the 350 wavelength region,

FUSION May-June 1986 47 piate for the same purpose. NMR could be fine-tuned in the radio or microwave region of the spectrum to couple into harmonic characteristics of spectroscopic features of the AIDS particle. NMR spectroscopy creates spectral images of specific molecular patterns in tissues, depending on which fre­ quency (radio, microwaves, and so on) is used to trigger the signal. Potentially, NMR spectroscopy can be employed in all those fields of biophysical research that call for in­ sights into metabolic changes, molecular interactions, and so on. Frazer, who recently used NMR spectroscopy to identify differences in the glycoprotein structures of tumor cells with varying degrees of malignancy, is con­ vinced that NMR spectroscopy will also play an important role in AIDS research. All the technologies mentioned, including the flow cy­ tometer, CIDS, and NMR, will provide spectral signatures of molecules or particles only from a relatively small band of the entire electromagnetic spectrum (ranging from long wavelength radio waves, radar, infrared, and the visible region through ultraviolet and the short wavelength X-rays The flow cytometer at Los Alamos: The task of the "biolog­ and gamma rays). In order to evaluate the qualities and ical SDI" is to develop this technology quickly to defeat the properties of any individual molecule, however, scientists AIDS virus. must be able to obtain the total emission in all these spectral ranges of such a molecule. would damage the sample in terms of photopolymerization One of the main problems of biophysics, in general, is or photodepolymerization. Dr. James Frazer of the Hous­ that researchers are technically unable, at the moment, to ton Medical Center, an expert on spectroscopic questions, measure all of the field information emitted from any sur­ has suggested use of lasers in the range of 430 nanometers face of a molecule, cell, or particle. Lacking this total over­ because of their interference with key molecular systems view, we look at the real characteristics of molecular events, in the cell. in effect, only through a tiny slit. It is an established fact that light of various wavelengths Spectroscopy and Biophysics plays a key controlling role in cells. We also know some of After fusion research and the development of directed the basic processes that lead to the creation of very weak energy technologies (lasers), the next most significant field electromagnetic fields in living organisms. For instance, of science is spectroscopy of living processes. Further­ any long polymer that consists of charged particles has def­ more, it will be progress in basic biological and biophysical inite vibrational modes, which result in infrared emissions. research that will have the greatest impact on laser and Other conditions and motions result in emissions of differ­ plasma technology. When we understand better how DNA ent wavelengths. These are obligatory events that occur or a living cell works, we will be able to develop a better universally in any living organism. In fact, once one rejects military laser defense and open up the unlimited energy the simplistic building-block notion of molecular biology source of fusion. that, unfortunately, has dominated scientific thinking in the A "biological SDI," which explores how living organisms last decades, a huge new field of research opens up: the use energy—that is, how electromagnetic action is used in biology of light.2 a highly efficient manner—will produce the same kinds of The flow cytometer/CIDS is an important step in the right spinoffs and breakthroughs as the defense SDI. direction, even if this machine represents only a small por­ The fact that CIDS uses left and right circularly polarized tion of the fields emitted by any molecular species. I n terms light coheres with the way nature itself is organized. The of spectroscopic technologies, the immediate task is to run great Louis Pasteur first discovered that living organisms microwave interferometry, infrared interferometry, ultra­ are predominantly organized according to a left or right violet-visible interferometry, and so on at the same time. asymmetry. Key molecules in life processes, like amino acids Currently the equipment for such a test is not available. and proteins, are used in nature only in one of their two However, this is exactly what the "biological SDI" must asymmetric forms. The reason that is the case may very well begin to develop in order to defeat the AIDS virus. be found in the different spectroscopic behavior of these Wolfgang Lillge is on the biology staff of the FEF. chiral macromolecules.

A highly significant aspect of any spectroscopic tool like NOTES CIDS would be not only to detect an AIDS particle in the DNS genome, but, ultimately, to destroy it using the right 1. See "The Medicine of the Future Is Here Now," by the author and John Grauerholz in Fusion, March-April 1985, p.28. frequency and intensity of input radiation. Nuclear Mag­ 2, See the author's article, '"Optical Biophysics': The Science of Light and Life," netic Resonance (NMR) technology might also be appro- in Fusion, March-April 1986, p.31.

48 May-June 1986 FUSION

here are two great frontiers of science: first, the nical conjecture because only if this conjecture is true, will quest to reach ever-greater distances in space; and we really become masters of our universe. T second, the study of ever-smaller dimensions of space But we are not just interested in exploring surfaces and and time. Both quests—the first still being done with space planets and colonizing them; we would also like to know— rockets, and the second with high-energy particle accel­ using a phrase by Goethe—the forces of nature that are erators—require ever-larger energies. holding together the innermost parts of the universe. In How far we can go depends upon a very important con­ physics, this means the nuclear and subnuclear forces. And jecture. (A conjecture, of course, is not a theorem, it only if we are interested in the laws of life, this means the laws mightbe one.) This conjecture is called the "physical-tech­ of microbiology. nical conjecture"; it states that the laws of nature have a This is where the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) comes structure that permits a technology making all these laws in, because the implementation of the SDI will give us new explorable. It is by no means obvious that this is true, and tools; tools that represent a kind of supertechnology, as at the moment it is only a conjecture. However, until now, yet unheard of, which will permit us, eventually, to explore this conjecture has been proven to be true. In mathematics, all of the laws of nature. Before I review some of the ideas we have conjectures like the famous Riemann conjecture of the SDI—at least those concepts that indicate how such regarding the zeros of the zeta function, which determines a defense system could perhaps be built—I would like to the distribution of the prime numbers. The Riemann con­ reflect back to some ideas that space pioneer Hermann jecture has been shown to be true for the region of the zeta Oberth outlined in a letter he sent to a publisher in 1924. function, explored for example with computers, but we do Oberthasks: not know if it is true for all regions up to infinity. However, it probably is true since it has held true in that many cases. Here is another problem; is it perhaps possible that It is hard to accept that mathematics, which is in some way one can propagate, in space, beams [he thought about a part of nature, should suddenly go an odd way. cathode rays or ion beams] which remain parallel over arbitrary distances? Such beams, then, could serve, in Likewise, in physics, it is hard to believe that the experi­ a certain sense, as tracks in space, which could be used ence we have had so far would abandon us, and that certain by spaceships to receive energy, and also could be parts of nature turn out to be unexplorable. Therefore I used to give the spaceships some kind of material would say that everything that can be explored, not only hold. . . .It is quite conceivable, in fact, that one could will be explored, but that every part of nature can be ex­ use such beams as tracks—for example, between two plored, which is something quite different. Saying that ev­ parallel beams, to make the analogy complete, of rail­ erything that can be explored will be explored does not road tracks. necessarily mean that everything that is unexplored, can be explored. Current technology could limit what can be ex­ This was before the laser was invented, so Oberth visu­ plored now. However, the "physical-technical conjecture" alized two beams, one made up of positively charged par­ merely says that everything that is explorable can be ex­ ticles and the other of negatively charged particles, which plored eventually. Therefore I would like to speculate on of course, would be necessary to provide a return current. what these technologies might be by which all laws of phys­ In the case of an uncharged laser beam, we would only ics can be explored. need one beam, or one track (a monorail). Then Oberth raises another question: If a spaceship were Colonizing the Galaxy helped by such beams, could it come close to the velocity The successful completion of NASA's Apollo program of light? Thus, in 1924 Oberth raised questions that decades established beyond a reasonable doubt that exploration of later are still attracting science fiction writers. According to the solar system, of the surfaces of planets, is possible. Einstein's special theory of relativity, everything in the Eventually, we will have the technology to explore the sur­ spaceship—and that includes life—would go slower. Ob­ faces of all of the planets of our solar system. Furthermore, erth expressed the view that there cannot be the slighest there cannot be the slightest doubt that we will eventually doubt, in spite of contradicting views at that time, that Ein­ master the technology of controlled fusion, because ac­ stein's prediction is true. When Oberth put this on paper, tually we have already mastered it in the hydrogen bomb. the time dilation effect predicted by Einstein was still un­ This is not enough; we also must miniaturize it so that this confirmed. Today, it has been confirmed by the decay of energy source will enable us to reach nearby solar systems. mesons, and more recently by atomic clocks carried in The next step, then, would be to go to a nearby solar planes. system, maybe 10 light years away or even 100 light years away. If it is habitable, and if we then colonize it for a The SDI Breakthrough thousand years and then keep on going farther, hopping One very important breakthrough in the SDI was made a from one solar system to another, a simple calculation shows few years ago—the X-ray laser. A laser requires some kind that the entire galaxy could be colonized in about 10 million of energy source to pump a medium. The medium consists years. The exploration of our solar system, of nearby solar of atoms, which all oscillate in a coherent way and emit a systems, and finally of all solar systems in our galaxy, is beam in one preferred direction only. The X-ray laser con­ clearly feasible with fusion propulsion. cept developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Labo­ I want to stress here the importance of the physical-tech­ ratory undoubtedly is a direct thought-child of the famous

50 May-June 1986 FUSION Teller-Ulam configuration, or, more accurately, the Teller- The famous theory says: If you have a convergent shock Ulam-Guderley configuration. Teller invented this famous wave, you get about a 30-fold compression in the center of configuration by combining the unrelated ideas of Ulam the deuterium ball and the temperature rises; in this case, andGuderley. with a meter-sized ball of liquid deuterium, temperature The Teller-Ulam configuration appears in Figure 1. An rises from 10 million degrees at the surface of the ball to 1 atomic bomb is positioned in one focus of an ellipsoidal billion degrees. Then you get ignition in the center, and a cavity (it can be egg-shaped), and in the second focus is a thermonuclear propagation wave moves outward. The hy­ ball of liquid deuterium. The diameter of the U-235 bomb drogen bomb exploded in the Bikini Atoll, called the "Mike" is very small compared to the deuterium ball at the right, Test, must have looked like this. which isaboutl meter. Inthelastmomentsoftheexplosion In the X-ray laser shown in Figure 2, the ellipsoidal cavity of the fission bomb an enormous amount of soft X-rays is of Figure 1 becomes a long pipe. Inside the pipe is a wire emitted with the velocity of light, well ahead of the explo­ that is the laser rod; it is bombarded with the X-rays, and it sion wave. This fact is utilized in Ulam's idea. becomes, incidentally, what laser physicists call a continu­ According to this idea X-rays can be confined by solid ous wave or CW laser. The laser transitions in the X-ray walls. Therefore, the X-rays confined inside the ellipsoidal domain are very, very short-lived, but the X-ray bombard­ cavity will hit the deuterium ball, giving it a surface temper­ ment, before the whole thing disintegrates by the explo­ ature of 10 million degrees; that will launch into the ball a sion wave of the fission bomb, lasts long enough to pump convergent Cuderley shock wave, named after the aero- up the atoms many, many times, producing a continuous dynamicist Kurt Cuderley. beam of X-rays.

Figure 1 TELLER-ULAM CONFIGURATION FOR A THERMONUCLEAR EXPLOSION An enormous amount of soft X- rays are emitted in the U-235 chain reaction, imploding the li­ quid deuterium ball (D) with a Cuderley convergent shock wave.

Figure 2 X-RAY LASER CONFIGURATION Deforming the Teller-Ulam con­ figuration into a long pipe with a wire inside, produces a continu­ ous wave X-ray laser.

FUSION May-June 1986 51 Recently Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory re­ these ion beams, which are produced by magnetically in­ portedly made a breakthrough, producing a type of optical sulated diodes. Sandia can now focus these ion beams, cavity with such X-ray lasers. If true, then the beam reaches almost as if with an optical lens, to a spot less than a milli­ such coherence that it no longer spreads out. In Figure 2, meter in diameter. This was totally unpredicted, and it is the beam would still spread out, because the pipe, or the theoretically poorly understood, because the beam behav­ wire has a finite thickness, is not infinitely thin. (If it were ior is highly nonlinear, but by trial and error, lab researchers too thin, then no radiation would come out.) The spreading found out it works. Before that only laser beams could be of the beam depends on the ratio of the diameter of the focused that well. This therefore poses a very big challenge wire, divided by the wavelength, so the beam initially to the Livermore laboratory, which put its bet on a laser spreads out slightly; yet over several thousand kilometers, having much less energy because they thought only laser this can be quite significant. beams could be focused. Sandia could afford a megajoule If the breakthrough reported at Livermore proves true, ion beam machine because ion beams are much cheaper to the laboratory succeeded in making an optical cavity for X- produce, therefore, Sandia is ahead of Livermore by a factor rays. To make it possible, a concept known as zone plate, of about 10 to 100. invented by the famous 18th-century French physicist Au- gustin Fresnel, most likely was used. In this case then, the Spinoff Applications X-ray laser beam not only can be made much, much strong­ If we can produce thermonuclear microexplosions, then er, but also can be kept together. This of course will have we could also make an X-ray laser for the laboratory. And tremendous implications for Oberth's idea of beam tracks. then, by a certain technique called holography, we could If we can really make such an X-ray beam and keep it to­ magnify living tissue, including living cancer cells, perhaps gether, then we can propel a spacecraft over tremendous a million times, without killing the cancer cells. This could distances. be much better than an electron microscope where the There is another, very important application of the X-ray cancer cells being looked at are killed. We could make such laser. As you know, there are tremendous efforts under enormous magnifications of cells without killing them, be­ way to miniaturize hydrogen bombs to such an extent that cause X-rays are much less destructive than the electron the explosion can be controlled in a chamber. In other beam rays in an electron microscope. Magnifying a cancer words, we would have an explosion motor, where minia­ cell that much could show scientists exactly which mole­ turized explosions would take place (like the explosions in cule is moving from here to there, and give us a very clear an automobile engine, which do not destroy it since they idea of how to explore the cause of the abnormality in are controlled). With a different kind of trigger to replace cancer. the atomic bomb trigger, we could have thermonuclear Of course, cancer research would not be the only area to microexplosions. benefit. The X-ray laser as a tool could also be used to One very promising candidate to replace the atomic bomb explore the cause of many other diseases. And in genetic trigger would be intense ion beams. Sandia National Labo­ engineering, we could really determine, which "piece" we ratories has made a tremendous breakthrough recently with must move from over here to over there. In fact we could

Figure 3 MAGNETIC ACCELERATOR Many coils energized by capacitors produce the traveling magnetic wave to drive the projectile. But the capacitors can be replaced by a sequence of thermonuclear microexplosions as shown in Figure 4.

52 May-June 1986 FUSION eventually be able to read the genetic code like a book, a by thermonuclear microexplosions. There are several very beneficial spinoff of the SDI. Most important, we could chambers where small nuclear explosions take place; each retard the aging process. Our life now lasts—what does the chamber produces a fireball that presses against the mag­ Bible say?—70 to 80 years, and it's reaching 90 (for example netic field, and an enormous electromagnetic pulse is pro­ Hermann Oberth is 91). Since we need about 30 years to duced. get educated, that means we work another 30 years and With such a microexplosion-driven magnetic accelera­ then we are thrown away. tor, we could launch very large payloads from the surface How long does it take to produce a car? A day? If the car of the Earth into Earth-orbit. Furthermore, we could use then moved around for one day and after that it went to the particle beams and laser beams to make a channel through junk dealer, this obviously would be very inefficient. Since the atmosphere, heating the air to several thousand de­ our life is comparatively short, I hope that with genetic grees (or perhaps 10,000 or even 100,000 degrees) and mak­ engineering we could one day make the necessary changes ing it much thinner. Of course, the channel would have to to reach a lifespan of say 1,000 years. (I personally would, if last only for a very short moment, only long enough to let I could, like to live forever!) But at least if we could, with the fast projectile through the channel with very little air genetic engineering, increase lifespan bya factor of 10, that resistance. would be a breakthrough in everything. Our education, Figure 4 shows how that works in the framework of the which lasts 30 years, could then be much more efficiently SDI. Huge electromagnetic guns would be located in north­ utilized. ern Canada, or Alaska, or one of the Arctic islands. If ICBMs Thus you can see what kind of side effects the SDI may are launched from the Soviet Union, the X-ray laser would have, side effects that are very difficult even to predict at be lifted very rapidly above the horizon to destroy them in this time. their boost phase. Ordinary rockets may not be fast enough to lift the X-ray laser above the Earth's atmosphere. How­ Interstellar Travel ever an electromagnetic gun which could generate in a very Another very important milestone in the SDI would be a short moment a velocity of about 30 kilometers per second, magnetic accelerator reaching very large velocities (Figure then, of course, in less than a minute, or maybe a hundred 3). Ultimately, such magnetic accelerators could be driven seconds, the X-ray laser would be at the right altitude to fire

Figure 4 ELECTROMAGNETIC GUNS TO LAUNCH X-RAY LASER SYSTEMS Huge electromagnetic guns in northern Canada could pop-up X- ray laser systems at 30 kilometers per second to kill Soviet rockets in the boost stage.

FUSION May-June 1986 and destroy the boosters. If we make a very, very long "road" of such nuclear ex­ There has been a lot of talk about so-called fast-burn plosives, and the spaceship comes and sets off the nuclear boosters being able to escape the X-ray laser, because they explosive shells, it could attain velocities of 3,000 kilo­ rapidly reach a very high velocity. (The MX is one type of meters per second. The configuration for such a thermo­ fast-burn booster.) The Russians do not have a fast-burn nuclear-shaped charge capable of reaching this velocity is booster yet; with present boosters the whole payload of shown at left in Figure 5. To produce velocities close to the warheads and decoys is released in a relatively high alti­ speed of light, we would utilize a different kind of shaped tude—roughly 200 kilometers. A fast-burn booster could charge, shown at right in Figure 5. reach that velocity at 80 kilometers altitude; and then, the The latter design gives you about three times higher ve­ X-ray laser beam could be absorbed. However, the report­ locity than the nuclear explosive products move. (In a ther­ ed breakthrough by Livermore scientists may have changed monuclear explosion you have approximately 10,000 kilo­ this. meters per second versus 30,000 kilometers per second; In this case, very powerful X-ray laser beams could be but in the other type we could come close to the velocity of produced that spread out much less. Then the laser would light.) We would have to shoot many, many such atomic simply burn a hole through the atmosphere and could de­ bombs, or rather hydrogen bombs, ahead of the spaceship, stroy the fast-burn booster. The X-ray laser, therefore, in and that spaceship would use all of the explosives already combination with an electromagnetic gun, has to be taken placed there as a sort of rail. The energy and the recoil mass very seriously. We can also use an electromagnetic gun as are already put ahead of the spaceship. a zero-stage for a rocket, and there may be some combi­ Many years ago, someone proposed a nuclear ramjet nations that will turn out to be optimal. using interstellar gas. That would not work, because the Figure 5 demonstrates some idea of how we can use the density of interstellar gas is much too thin, and there is not electromagnetic gun technology to reach interstellar dis­ enough thermonuclear fuel in it. With the thermonuclear tances, maybe a trip to a nearby solar system. What is sug­ miroexplosions, of course, the fuel is placed into space as gested here is an electromagnetic gun with many capacitor a kind of road, a nuclear road to the stars. coils. Of course, we could also use thermonuclear microex- plosions instead of these capacitors. Gamma-Ray Laser Beam Propulsion Suppose before a spaceship starts, we launch a large Figure 6 is a new concept that I hope will be a new area number of nuclear explosives ahead of it, with an electro­ of research. There has been a renewed interest in an old magnetic gun. This would form a chain in space, a "road" idea first described by Willard Bennett around 1930—the moving ahead of the spaceship. Like a ramjet, the spaceship pinch effect. This idea of using a pinch was popular in the would ignite the nuclear explosive just after it passes it. This early days of the fusion program. One pioneer on the pinch nuclear explosive, then, with characteristics of a shaped research, Dr. Winston H. Bostick still believes in the pinch, charge, would give the spaceship a big push. and a lot of people are starting to look at it again in an

Figure 5 A NUCLEAR ROAD TO THE STARS In this configuration an electromag­ netic gun projects a "road" of nu­ clear explosions into space. The spaceship detonates the explo­ sions, which then propel the vehi­ cle forward.

54 May-June 1986 FUSION Figure 6 SCHEMATIC FOR RADIATIVE COLLAPSE OF AN ELECTRON/ POSITRON PLASMA TO NUCLEAR DIMENSIONS In this concept, a large number of positrons are created, accelerated to relativistic energies, and coalesced with a similar beam of electrons into a relativistic electron/positron plas­ ma of counterstreaming beams. This beam will collapse to a diameter of nuclear dimensions, or perhaps smaller, creating an entirely new state of matter.

entirely new light. Such an electron-positron plasma would have a unique There is a most unusual kind of pinch, for which, how­ fate. First, if the particles move toward each other they ever, we have to first produce a very large number of posi­ collide. This collision of particles results in heating, so the trons. To produce this very large number of positrons, we electron-positron plasma gets hotter, an effect that would will need a plasma like hydrogen plasma that does not con­ tend to blow up the electron-positron plasma. However, sist of electrons and protons, but rather of electrons and there is another effect acting in the opposite direction. positrons (matter and antimatter). To make this plasma, we Because the beams are relativistic, the particle oscillations need to produce a very large number of positrons, which perpendicular to the beam axis, produced by the particle are electrons except that they have an opposite charge. And collisions, lead to the emission of intense radiation that if a positron meets an electron, they annihilate each other cools the electron-positron plasma. There are some situa­ into gamma radiation. tions where the plasma loses more heat this way, and loses In the first step, we can produce a very large number of it faster than it can produce by collisions. If the cooling positrons with an ultraviolet laser. In the second step, we exceeds the heating, then, the electron-positron plasma would have to accelerate the positrons to relativistic ener­ will collapse to a diameter of nuclear dimensions, and un­ gies and make them form an intense relativistic positron der some circumstances to an even smaller diameter (Fig­ beam; then we would do the same thing with electrons, ure 6). Therefore, we would have an entirely new-state of except that we would accelerate them into the opposite matter, which exists in the universe only in neutron stars or direction. (We would not have to produce the electrons in stars that are closely related to black holes. In neutron because they are readily available.) In the third step, we stars such densities are created in the nucleus by gravita­ would make the electron and positron beams coalesce into tional collapse; but here they are created by radiative col­ a relativistic electron-positron plasma of counterstreaming lapse of a relativistic electron-positron plasma. Just prior to beams. the collapse to its final state, the electron-positron plasma Imagine that the beams occupy large rings or racetracks forms a fantastically narrow filament. Because of this, it that can be many, many kilometers long. One beam goes would send out an enormous burst, not of soft X-rays, but in one direction and the other goes in the opposite direc­ of gamma rays, and that means very hard gamma rays. tion (Figure 6a). Then both beams are oppositely charged, What can we do now that we have a many-mile-long, so they attract each other electrostatically and also magnet­ racetrack-like relativistic electron-positron plasma? It would ically. They would then coalesce into one electron-positron not only produce a gamma-ray beam of fantastically high plasma. The electron-positron plasma would be electrically coherence, because it shrinks down to nuclear dimensions, neutral, because the positive charges of the electron would but also it would have an enormous energy release because be compensated by the negative charges of the positron- it is a pinch of nuclear density. So we could use this gamma- electrons. Opposite charges compensate each other and ray beam to give energy to an interstellar spaceship, as we get the positron-electron plasma shown in Figure 6b. Professor Oberth envisioned it (Figure 7).

FUSION May-June 1986 55 We could project such highly coherent gamma-ray beams Physicists now are wondering if protons do indeed de­ over immense distances, because the beam is so highly cay, since the evidence is not conclusive for or against. That coherent and therefore so highly parallel. does not mean they cannot decay. Radium decay was not easy to detect, requiring certain, very delicate measuring Proton Decay equipment. In the neutron-induced, nuclear chain reac­ Let me return to the "physical-technical" conjecture again. tion, however, the radioactive decay was enormously am­ Chemistry, which is the science of dealing with the outer plified, and the same may be possible with the proton de­ electron shells of atoms, needed only the relatively small cay, with a still-to-be-discovered effect. It is quite conceiv­ energy of a few electron volts. This posed no serious tech­ able that protons also eventually decay through an inter­ nical problems. In order to get to the megavolts needed to action that becomes significant only if you have reached explore the atomic nucleus, particle accelerators were extremely high energies—many, many orders of magni­ needed, and with them nuclear reactions became explor- tude larger than the largest particle energies reached. able. More precisely, we need energies about a trillion times According to Einstein's equation £ = mc:, nuclear reac­ larger than the energies encountered in nuclear physics. tions release only about 1 percent of the energy stored in There is some speculation that at this energy level, the matter. Fusion releases somewhat more than fission, but strong and weak electromagnetic interactions are unified, even at best only a few percent, so we never get out 100 and there may be another energy even a thousand times percent of the energy. If one day, however, we develop higher at which the ultimate unification with gravity may machines that produce much higher particle energies, we happen. may get into a situation where the decay of protons could Conventional accelerators would be completely unsuit­ be greatly increased. able for this purpose, because to reach these energies they would be many light years long. The only hope ever to reach these energies is the invention of entirely new technolo­ gies. It is here, where the collapsed electron-positron plas­ ma may enter. We could, for example, make some sort of laser accelerator, in particular a gamma-ray laser accelera­ tor shown in Figure 8. There the acceleration would take place with gamma rays, in the very highly dense matter, and enormous particle energies could be reached. If it is 50 kilometers long, it could reach the energy needed to make the proton decay. For the SDI, of course, the development of such ultra- intense gamma-ray beams would be of great importance because they could easily puncture holes through the air and destroy incoming missiles.

Dr. Friedwardt Winterberg, a pioneer in inertial-confine- ment fusion, is a research professor at the Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada, and author of The Physical Principles of Thermonuclear Explosive Devices. He is con­ Figure 7 sidered the father of impact fusion for his early work on GAMMA RAY LASER ROAD TO THE STARS thermonuclear ignition by hypervelocity. He has long been A many-mile-long racetrack-like relativistic electron- at the forefront of research on the implementation of nucle­ positron plasma would produce a highly coherent ar energy for spaceflight. Born in Berlin, Germany in 1929, gamma-ray beam of enormous energy. This beam Dr. Winterberg received his doctorate in physics under Wer­ could then be used to give energy to a spaceship, as ner Heisenberg and helped design the research reactor of Professor Oberth had envisioned it. the Society to Advance Nuclear Energy for Naval Propulsion in Hamburg, West Germany.

Figure 8 THE GAMMA RAY LASER PLASMA WAVE ACCELERATOR Two bunches of protons or antiprotons would be launched from the opposite sides of the straight section of a long racetrack, hitting each other head-on.

56 May-June 1986 FUSION Teacher-in-space finalist Judith Garcia accepting a model of the aerospace plane from President Reagan Feb. 7.

from Victoria to Rio in a Piper Cub. We went into a storm and the plane was between clouds, where I could look up above me and see sunshine and blue sky, beside me clouds, and beneath me the land and the sea. It was incredible. I could see lightning strike from one cloud to the other, and I could see riplets of silt going out across the white sand into the sea, and the sea changing color. All at once my whole perception of everything came together, and from that new perspective I was no longer able, ever again in my life, to look at anything by itself. I've always felt that moment taught me that there is a whole picture of everything that we do. I've always tried to pull my­ self out of any situation and capture what that whole picture might be in any given situation. I've really loved aviation. I've only recently had an opportunity to work 'The Frontier of Space on my pilot's license. I have a friend who has a plane and I have started taking lessons with him. Beckons Irresistibly to Us' I got five hours' flight time in Au­ gust, but I've been very busy since Judith M. Garcia, a teacher of Question: What sparked your interest then and haven't kept up with it. It's French and Spanish at the Thomas in the space program? a love that I have, though, and will Jefferson High School for Science and I've been interested in the space continue. Technology in Fairfax, Va., was one program since the Soviet satellite of the 10 national finalists to be Sputnik went up in 1957. However, Question: What we generally get from NASA's first teacher in space. She is at that time I was in high school, and the media—apart from the good things interviewed here by Joseph Cohen, as we began developing our own they wrote about the Challenger—in a week after the Space Shuttle acci­ space program, a woman didn't dare an undertone and even directly, is that dent. dream of being a part of it. We could civilians are not ready for space flight On Feb. 7, President Reagan visit­ be interested in it, we could be cu­ and don't realize the dangers of it. ed her high school to present the first rious about it, but we really weren't That's not true at all. The teachers model of the "Orient Express" aero­ able to take part in it. who applied to NASA's program to space plane, the aircraft that can fly So I followed our trip to the Moon be the first teacher in space weren't from Washington, D.C. to Tokyo in as a bystander, with anxiety, and naive. They entered this program a little more than two hours. In ac­ hope, and all the emotions that every because they were interested in it. cepting the model for the school, American and every other person in The NASA selection process weeds Mrs. Garcia talked about the chal­ the world felt as the Apollo mission out all but those who are absolutely lenge of space to teachers and to succeeded. I never lost my interest dedicated to doing their best in suc­ youth. "The frontier of space beck­ in the space program. Also I was very ceeding in this program. ons irresistibly to us to explore its much affected by my first airplane The application itself was an un­ planets and moons. . . . The cour­ ride. believable ordeal: 15 pages of essay age and dedication of the Challenger questions. And by the time you went crew of seven will serve to inspire Question: How old were you then? through the application and selec­ and guide us as we continue their I had my first airplane ride when I tion process, and NASA's briefing, if journey to the stars." was 19. I was in Brazil, and I flew you didn't have an idea of what the

The Young Scientist FUSION May-June 1986 57 space program was all about, its you are sending up a culture, a civi­ We all had a taste of what it would strengths and its weaknesses, you lization. That means we're going to be like. We all knew that we were didn't belong in that group. have to have all kinds of people out physically and mentally able to deal I feel that all of the 114 teacher ap­ there. And I believe that the civilians with what would be before us. When plicants received a very, very good who are sent will play a major part in the selection was completed and background on the development of molding the way our future course is Barbara Morgan and Christa Mc- the Shuttle, what its good points planned in space. Auliffe were selected as 1 and 2, they were, what we hoped would be im­ went to Houston to undergo far more proved later on, and so forth. Also, Question: How were the finalists training than it was necessary to give after we were selected, Commander trained and what sort of activities did the rest of us. Dick Scobee talked with the 10 final­ you have? ists at length, discussing what we We were given lengthy workshops Question: Can you tell us more about were facing. He very openly talked and briefings as a group of 114 in their training? about the fact that it was a very dan­ Washington over a period of five They went up in the T-38 as a pre­ gerous thing. He said, of course we days. These workshops gave us in­ view of the accelerated flight that build the program on safety, but sight to the history of the space pro­ they would necessarily experience there's always that margin of risk in­ gram, where we were, where we are, during launch. They also went volved, and the risk is very great. and hopefully where we're going. through what you would call more If there is an accident, he said, it That in itself was a very, very com­ serious in-depth training on how to will be a very serious one. There real­ prehensive picture of the space pro­ handle themselves on the Shuttle ly aren't small things that can hap­ gram. Then as a group of 10 we were during launch, reentry, and the time pen. When you are in a launch pro­ taken to Houston where we went spent on the orbiter. cedure, there are many, many fac­ through medical and psychological They were trained in detail as to tors that go into that launch, and each exams. They measured us in ways what would be expected of them one has critical points. Each and that are not done in a normal medi­ during each moment of the time they every one of us knew this. cal exam. For example, we had a spent on the orbiter; what their du­ dental examination that involved ties would be, where to stand out of Question: So the press was wrong on taking actual photographs of our the way when they needed to, and this question of risk? teeth and the inner part of our where to take part when they should. They were absolutely wrong. To mouths. Thorough laboratory tests They went up in the KC-135 again, I the contrary of saying the program is were also run, and the cardiovascu­ believe three times, to test the hard­ not ready, I think that the finalists lar systems received a great deal of ware that they were going to deal felt that the Shuttle system had al­ attention. with. ready proven itself trustworthy and The psychological exam was Christa told me that there were safe; this was an accident. It's the lengthy, and also very thorough, in­ times when she felt she was being kind of accident that has occurred cluding a 2V2 hour discussion with overtrained, in that you repeat, and with commercial flight, which is real­ the psychiatrist. you repeat, and you repeat. And ly a much simpler type of aviation. I We also had classes where we were when I last saw her she said, "I know think what we have to do is put all taught about flight, the physiologi­ that you think that the training prob­ this in perspective. cal changes that occur at different ably was one exciting moment after It was a terrible tragedy, and it was altitudes, and what we could expect another, but in reality it often be­ unfortunate that it occurred with the and how to deal with it. We went came very repetitious, very tedious. first civilian in space. However, I through the physiological certifica­ Now I can appreciate why we have don't feel that because we've suf­ tion in the hypobaric chamber, to do this," she said. "I really am not fered this tragedy, we should stop where we took our oxygen masks off concerned about thinking about sending civilians in space. My feel­ for a period of time so that we could what I'm going to do because I really ings are so strong on this point that I experience symptoms of hypoxia. feel now I can simply do it." can't emphasize it enough. We are We also flew in the KC-135 strato- not sending only ourtechnology out tanker [the military version of a 707] Question: What would you say to in space, we are sending human to experience weightlessness. We young people who want to be astro­ beings out in space. did 27 parabolas, [dive/climb ma­ nauts? What should they study? How We are planning our first perma­ neuvers where zero gravity or should they prepare themselves for the nently manned space station. We are weightlessness occurs when the future? looking toward Mars. We are look­ centrifugal force pulling upward This is a question that many young ing toward the Moon. What we're equals gravitational force pulling people have been asking me. Basi­ looking at in the very near future is a downward] which took over two cally, I have been telling them to pre­ permanent presence of mankind in hours to complete. In general, we pare, but never close any doors be­ space. We've got to realize that they were given every consideration I felt fore you reach the thinking that this are human beings that we're send­ that we should have been given up is absolutely the goal you want to ing out there, and with human beings to that point in our training. achieve in your life. Of course, any-

58 May-June 1986 FUSION The Young Scientist one who wants to become a part of the space program knows and real­ Probing Inside a Comet Tail izes there is a heavy need for engi­ by Jim Everett neers, scientists, researchers, doc­ tors, biologists. In other words, The International Cometary Ex­ zipped through the cloud of dust and there's a great need for people in plorer, known as ICE, passed through plasma. All instruments worked per­ science and technology. the tail of comet Giacobini-Zinner, fectly and they transmitted impor­ I would encourage them to dig into only 4,880 miles from its nucleus, on tant details of the comet's structure. their math studies, their sciences. I Sept. 11,1985. Moving at a speed of The ICE satellite was launched in realize that these are not the easiest 12.8 miles per second, ICE safely 1978 with a different purpose and a fields to take up, and often they different name. It started as a solar might have to forego having a good wind monitoring satellite called In­ time to study; this is a sacrifice that terplanetary Sun-Earth Explorer or will have to be made for them to be ISEE 3. NASA placed ISEE 3 in what is outstanding in these areas. I believe known as a halo orbit, so that it al­ that in our space program we're ways stayed between the Earth and going to have to choose the most the Sun (Figure 1). The center of a oustanding men and women to take halo orbit is the so-called libration up and lead us forward. point, the place where the gravita­ Again, I would advise them not to tional pull of the Earth and the Sun close their eyes to the humanities. are exactly balanced. Thus the satel­ Going back to the point I made be­ lite traces out a "halo" over the Earth. fore, we're human beings going up Richard Farquhar, the mission's in space, and we can't lose sight of flight director, began exploring the our humanity. I would encourage possibility of moving ISEE 3 from its them, while they are studying sci­ halo orbit to probe a comet even be­ ence and math, to study the human­ fore it was launched. "I knew once ities for sensitivity about the role that Figure 1 in the halo orbit that the spacecraft the sciences will play in the history THE HALO'ORBIT could be moved all over the place," of mankind. Then they will be able The so-called halo orbit is cen­ he said. When it became evident that to grasp a complete picture of the tered on a libration point, the NASA would not have enough funds direction they are taking, a sense of place where the gravitational pull in its budget to send a special comet purpose. of the Earth balances that of the satellite to meet Halley's Comet, Far­ As far as looking to the space pro­ Sun. The satellite traces out a halo quhar began to persuade solar wind gram in view of the recent accident, over the Earth. scientists to give up their experi­ I would ask them not to take risks ments in exchange for a comet mis­ that are foolish risks, but to realize sion. that in the exploration of any frontier Comet Giacobini-Zinner (G-Z for there is an element of danger to be short) provided an ideal target. G-Z faced. Above all, we should always reaches perihelion (the orbit point consider human life and protect it. closest to the Sun) near the Earth's orbit, making it possible to redirect Question: This is how the United States the spacecraft with available on­ was settled, isn't it? board rockets and some help from That's exactly right, and as we the gravitational fields of the Earth moved West we lost many of our and the Moon. people. And as we've gone into many On June 10,1982, ground control­ other endeavors, we've also lost lers directed the satellite's rockets to many of our people. When you think fire, sending it out of the halo orbit of the Civil War, the American Rev­ and toward an intricate series of in­ olution, and so forth, we've lost peo­ teractions with the Earth and Moon. ple who chose to fight to work to­ After six more rocket boosts and five ward a goal; they looked at the situ­ lunar passes (the last being only 60 ation as it truly was, and accepted miles aoove tne surface of the the possibility that they might lose. Moon), the by-now-named ICE was In a sense they haven't lost, though, on track for a rendezvous with G-Z. for because of their sacrifices, we have now built a great country and a The International Cometary Explorer is strong country, and we are now only 5.8 feet wide, but its antennae Continued on page 60 stretch 302 feet across.

The Young Scientist 59 ICE left the Earth-Moon system in wheel, were expected to "drape possibly sodium or diatomic carbon. January 1985, and it finally caught up over" the cometary plasma, some­ The measuring time for this instru­ with C-Z nine months later, on Sept. thing like cooked spaghetti (Figure ment was 20 minutes, which was just 11. The onboard instruments had 2). the time ICE was in the heart of the not, of course, been originally de­ In this case, the theory proved tail. signed for probing a comet. But the correct. As ICE moved across the tail, As ICE approached G-Z, some original solar wind experiments in­ it detected first magnetic polarity in members of the research team wor­ volved measuring magnetic fields, one direction, then a neutral sheet, ried that cometary dust would dam­ plasmas, and ion composition—just then magnetic field lines of opposite age the spacecraft's sensors and the stuff that makes comets so inter­ polarity, confirming the theoretical possibly coat the solar cells, cutting esting. model. The presence of these d raped off energy to the satellite. In fact, No spacecraft had ever before vis­ field lines helps explain how comets therewasneitherdamagenoradrop ited a comet. In designing the exper­ keep their long tail so thin. in energy during the flyby. The plas­ iments to be performed during the Inside the plasma tail ICE detected ma wave instrument actually detect­ flyby, therefore, the ICE team had to a sharp drop in protons, the main ed less than one tenth the dust par­ rely on theoretical models. They ex­ constituent of the solar wind, and a ticles predicted. pected that ICE would cross a well- dramatic rise in electrons, 100 times The ICE mission is not over yet. It defined "bow shock" before passing more plentiful here than in the solar will twice cross the orbit of Halley's through the comet's tail. The bow wind. One surprising feature of the Comet, and NASA scientists hope to shock is a region where the solar plasma tail is its kinetic energy tem­ measure changes in the solar wind. wind is deflected and decelerated by perature of only 10,000 to 20,000 de­ the plasma surrounding the comet. grees, compared to the solar wind Interview with Instead of finding a sharp bound­ temperature of about 200,000 de­ ary layer, ICE detected plasma waves grees. Also unexpected was the rap­ Judith Garcia gradually increasing in strength id changing of magnetic polarity and Continued from page 59 84,000 miles before passing through intensity inside the bow shock, in­ building a great, strong space pro­ the tail and again 60,000 miles later. dicating turbulence between the so­ gram. Inside the Tail lar wind and the cometary plasma. I would want the young people to As a comet approaches and is The ICE was equipped to measure understand that any risk that they heated by the Sun, it sublimates the content of the comet's tail, but ever take should be a calculated risk water, carbon dioxide, ammonia, its instrumentation was not ade­ that they understand thoroughly and and other gases, which are then ion­ quate for definitive results. It detect­ then go forward as courageously as ized, or charged, by the solar wind. ed charged water molecules, some the Challenger crew went forward The Sun's magnetic field lines, which carbon monoxide ions, and an un­ into the future. radiate radially, like the spokes of a known ion of atomic mass 23 or 24, Question: You mentioned that this is for all humanity. Do you think it might Figure 2 help other parts of the world, such as MOVING THROUGH THE Africa, to have the goal of sending an COMET TAIL astronaut into space? As scientists had predict­ Are you saying that we could use ed, when the ICE satellite space to create peace on Earth? I had its rendezvous with the think that an African would be a mar­ tail of the Comet Ciacobi- velous person to select. Again, I real­ ni-Zinner, the spacecraft ly feel that what we're doing up there found the magnetic field is creating another area where man­ lines of the Sun draped kind is going to have to live and work over the comet's plasma together. tail like cooked spaghetti. Space is not going to be a mono­ As ICE moved across the lingual area, nor an arena for just one tail, it detected magnetic nation. We're all going to see that polarity in one direction, our space program requires inter­ then a neutral sheet, and national cooperation. Sharing the then magnetic field lines of space experience with people of all opposite polarity. It is nations would be a way of creating thought that these draped an understanding of this new fron­ field lines keep the com­ tier that would only enhance the et's tail thin. ability of mankind to deal with prob­ lems on Earth—as well as to avoid Illustration not drawn to scale. the same problems in space.

60 May-June 1986 FUSION The Young Scientist Comet Halleyin a time-exposure taken with the telescope at the Lick Observ­ atory at the University of California in Santa Cruz. The streaks are stars as the camera records their motion over 20 minutes.

ma suggested that the parent mole­ cules, in this case water, can best be detected by measuringtheir infrared fluorescence spectrum when stimu­ lated by sunlight. His theory, which has been con­ firmed independently by scientists in France and Japan, predicts in pre­ cise detail the wavelengths and rel­ ative intensities of infrared spectral lines emitted by gaseous water and other parent molecules that should be present in comets. The use of an airborne telescope Lick Observatory was necessary to get beyond Earth's Since 1951, scientists have tried to to make the first direct observation atmosphere, because the water va­ prove astronomer Fred Whipple's confirming water in a comet. por in our atmosphere will absorb theory that comets were "dirty Using the Infrared Spectrum some of the spectral lines under ob­ snowballs." Until December 1985, all These recent observations used servation. Using this airborne meth­ they had was indirect proof from ob­ the special instrumentation and tele­ od, spectroscopic studies done by serving fragments that showed that scope developed by scientists Har­ the scientists at the University of Ar­ the major ingredients of comets are old Larson, D. Scott Davis, and Mi­ izona detected water in Jupiter's at­ ice and water. chael Williams from the University mosphere 10 years ago. Direct proof came from a tele­ of Arizona. Before this, scientists Over the past 20 years, scientists scope sent up by NASA in an aircraft, were able to detect only the by­ first tried to confirm the presence of flying at an altitude of 41,000 feet, products of the postulated underly­ water in comets using radio astron­ that measured the infrared spectra ing ice. These by-products consisted omy telescopes. Later they used sat­ of Halley's comet. A modified C-141 of oxygen and hydrogen atoms, mol­ ellites, like the International Ultra­ aircraft, operated by NASA's Ames ecules like OH (one oxygen and one violet Explorer. But these instru­ Research Center in California and hydrogen atom), and positively ments did not show the presence of fitted with a special 36-inch diameter charged water molecules. water, according to Dr. Harold telescope from the University of Ar­ The recent discovery stems from a Weaver of Johns Hopkins, because izona, operated way above any new theory on spectroscopy, pre­ water "does not fluoresce in the ul­ ground-based telescope, Dec. 21-23. sented at a March 1980 conference traviolet, and the new theory shows At that height, scientists in the Kui- by Dr. Michael Mumma of the NASA that water's radio spectral lines are per Airborne Observatory were able Goddard Space Flight Center. Mum- too weak to be seen."

Figure 1 THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM The light we see is the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum of energy, which ranges from the very long wavelengths of heat to the very short wavelengths of ultraviolet light and X-rays. Infrared waves are too long for our eyes to see; microwaves and radiowaves are even longer. The Arizona spectrometer can detect the particular wavelengths emitted by the comet when it is stimulated by sunlight. Similarly, scientists use satellite-based spectrometers in order to find the infrared "signatures " for different kinds of plants or rocks on Earth.

The Young Scientist FUSION May-June 1986 61 Superphenix Continued from page 11 ious commonly used moderators, cap­ ture sufficiently few neutrons to make a chain reaction possible in natural uranium. Although fast neutrons are not very efficient in splitting U-235 nuclei, they can do other things that make them very attractive in the breeder. First, they can split U-238, which since it is more common, means that between 10 and 15 percent of all fissions in a fast breed­ er are from fast neutrons. Therefore, fast neutrons are responsible for that amount of the energy produced. More important, the neutrons hit­ ting uranium-238 have a high probabil­ ity of being captured and creating ura- Figure 2 nium-239, which rapidly decays into MAPPING THE SPECTRA OF THE PLANET SATURN neptunium-239andthen into the more The new spectrometer developed at the University of Arizona greatly in­ stable plutonium-239. Fast neutrons are creases the resolution possible. Shown in (a) is a section of the spectral very efficient in fissioning plutonium, signature of the planet Saturn's atmosphere taken in 1970 with a resolution so by converting unproductive urani­ of .4 centimeters. The present high-resolution instrument produced the um-238 into the highly fissile pluton­ detail shown in (b), at .009 centimeters. ium-239, the neutrons produce ener­ gy- The breeder requires two neutrons The Results ward, observing only the fragments per fission—one to produce the plu­ Mumma's theory of infrared fluo­ of the comet, to try to understand tonium and one to split it—whereas rescence of water predicted accu­ the dynamics of these celestial bod­ conventional thermal reactors require rately the presence of 10 spectral ies that produce such magnificent only one neutron per fission. This need lines of water in the cometary coma comas and tails as they approach the for two neutrons per fission is offset to surrounding Halley's nucleus. Ob­ Sun. Now they have a powerful tool a large extent by the fact that when a servations Dec. 21 showed 4 of the for direct measurements and identi­ fission is triggered by a fast neutron, it 10 predicted lines; then on Dec. 23, fication of the parent molecules. releases more neutrons than when all 10 were seen. The NASA/Arizona University team triggered by a thermal neutron. When These differences were attributed is planning to observe comet Halley fissioning U-235, for example, each fis­ to changes in the comet itself. Ac­ again from March 21-27 flying the sion releases on average 2.05 neutrons cording to Weaver, "the brightness Kuiper Airborne Observatory in the in a thermal reactor and 2.46 neutrons of the water lines, across the board, southern hemisphere near Austral­ in a fast reactor; when fissioning plu­ increased by a factor of 3" between ia. They will be looking for both water tonium, each fission releases 1.96 neu­ the observations. "Finding such dra­ and methane in the comet, hopeful­ trons in a thermal reactor and 3.03 in a matic variability in the comet's be­ ly compiling the first complete map breeder. havior was a surprise in itself," he of a cometary coma for these two Criticality is easier to reach in the commented. substances. breeder because its core can be more Until now, scientists worked back- —Marsha Freeman dense than that of a conventional re­ actor, since it needs no moderator. 'Trailmaster' In order to have a reactor breed— regenerate fissile material from non- Continued from page 21 transformations in a wide range of ma­ fissile material—fast breeders utilize gimes. This can most immediately be terials, at even extremely low levels of covers, called fertile blankets. These seen in the fact that simply irradiating irradiation. are made of depleted uranium, a material with long wavelength infrared Trailmaster provides an economical, "waste product" of enrichment plants, electromagnetic radiation does not di­ readily accessible, and versatile means and they capture neutrons that nor­ rectly lead to the generation of nuclear of exploring the widest range of high mally escape from the core. The fuel in transformation, no matter how in­ energy, energy dense physical re­ the core is slowly depleted in fissile tense the irradiation; while short gimes and will vastly expand the exist­ material, but the blankets are progres­ wavelength gamma ray electromag­ ing frontiers of basic science and ap­ sively getting enriched at a quicker rate, netic radiation will induce nuclear plied technologies. and thus breeding more fuel than the

62 May-June 1986 FUSION The Young Scientist breeder consumes. Killing the Comatose "(a) His mouth would dry out and Several plans are in the works to fol­ Continued from page 9 become caked or coated with thick low-up Superphenix. The original plan state." Kopelman's ruling backs the material. was a concept called Rapides-1500, a unanimous decision of the staff and "(b) His lips would become parched plant with two reactors akin to Super­ board of New England Sinai Hospital and cracked or fissured. phenix, but optimized to a power of not to take the life of their patient, Paul "(c) His tongue would become swol­ 1,500 MWe. The lack of determination Brophy, because they view their "pri­ len and might crack. by the managers of the program, how­ mary function as prolonging the life of "(d) His eyes would sink back into ever, has delayed any decision on this a patient." their orbits. concept. The economic crisis also has Since March, 1983, Brophy, 48, from "(e) His cheeks would become hol­ sharply reduced the energy consump­ Dedham, Mass., has been in what is low. tion expectation for the decades to called a "locked in state." This means "(f) The mucosa (lining) of his nose come; therefore, creating the percep­ that he may have some sensory appre­ might crack and cause his nose to tion that breeders will not really be ciation of what is happening around bleed. necessary for 20 to 30 years. Because him, but is unable to communicate or "(g) His skin would hang loose from the electricity produced by Superphe­ give a response, because of paralysis his body and become dry and scaly. nix is more expensive than usual nu­ in pathways controlling voluntary mo­ "(h) His urine would become highly clear electricity (though it is still much tor response. concentrated, causing inflamation of cheaper than fossil-fuel power plants), Brophy turns away from noxious the bladder. the current idea predominant in the stimuli, recoils from tickling or pain, "(i) The lining of his stomach would industry is to "just keep the concept and, like the patients mentioned dry out causing dry heaves and vomit­ alive," instead of going for a bold de­ above, is considered quite healthy. He ing. velopment program. is neither "terminally ill" nor "brain "(j) He would develop hyperther­ Such thinking forgets that Super­ dead" and depends only on a plastic mia, very high body temperature. phenix is an industrial prototype, and tube for daily feedings. "(k) His brain cells would begin therefore understandably more ex­ His family, however, asked his phy­ drying out, causing convulsions. pensive than a conventional nuclear sicians to starve and dehydrate Brophy "(I) His respiratory tract would dry plant. If future breeders were con­ last spring. The hospital refused and out, giving rise to very thick secre­ structed at the same pace as conven­ the family went to court. tions, which could plug his lungs and tional nuclear plants have been built in Brophy's physician, Dr. Richard A. cause death. France, the price per kilowatt hour Field, told the court: "Bringing about "(m) Eventually his major organs would fall to levels similar to or just death through starvation and dehydra­ would fail, including his lungs, heart slightly above the current nuclear tion is a barbaric and savage way to and brain. electricity prices. induce death. . . ." He compared what "109. The above described process After the Superphenix the Brophy family wanted to do with is extremely painful and uncomforta­ Discussions are going on now about the horrors he saw when he helped ble for a human being. Brophy's at­ liberate Nazi concentration camp sur­ the construction of only one other Su­ tending physician was unable to vivors: "I saw literally thousands of perphenix, perhaps just slightly im­ [imagine] a more cruel and violent people who had been subjected to de­ proved in terms of optimization, thus death than thirsting to death." hydration and starvation, both dead bringing the power for a reactor of the Finally Judge Kopelman found: and dying. I think Brophy is in good same dimensions to 1,500 MWe. There "27. A society which rejects euthan­ condition and it is going to take a lot of are also discussions about building this asia, the selective killing of the unfit, starving [for him] to die," Field said. second reactor in West Germany, but the insane, the retarded, and the com­ officials are unenthusiastic about this Judge Kopelman agreed. We reprint atose patient is morally obligated to option, because they fear that the Ger­ here segments of the "Procedural sustain the life of an ill human being, man Greens would stall any project Background, Findings of Fact, Conclu­ even one in a persistent vegetative there. sions of Law" from ludge Kopelman's state. ..." Superphenix still is a technological decision of Oct. 21,1985. The decision has saved Brophy only jewel, and France can certainly not af­ Starvation: A Scientific Description temporarily, for the pro-euthanasia ford to dismantle the highly skilled "107. If food and water are withheld "ethicists" and the Brophy family, de­ worker/engineer teams that have from Brophy pursuant to the guardi­ termined for what they call a "dignified proven their excellence. Even if ther­ an's request, his prognosis will cer­ death," have appealed the decision. monuclear fusion and perhaps fission- tainly be death from starvation, or more According to varying estimates, there fusion hybrid breeders ultimately will probably from dehydration, which are anywhere from 5,000 to 100,000 replace today's fast breeder, we can­ would occur within a period of time people in the United States in the same not afford "burning our dry wood" ranging from a minimum of four days highly disabled, comatose, or perma­ carelessly, without regard for future to a maximum of three weeks. nently uncommunicative states like the generations. "108. During this time, Brophy's victims mentioned here. Judge Kopel­ Laurent Rosenfeld is editor-in-chief body would be likely to experience the man's ruling vividly describes the hor­ of the French-language Fusion maga- following effects from a lack of hydra­ rors these human beings face if we al­ zine. tion and nutrition: low this Nazi policy to take hold.

FUSION May-June 1986 63 Interview with Klitzing Question: Do you consider yourself more a theoretical physicist or an experimen­ tal physicist? Continued from page 31 Today I would consider myself ex­ analyzed it as a function of tempera­ clusively as an experimentalist. I have ture, magnetic field, and so on, but at to conduct an experiment and in that that time we we did not succeed in way recognize problems. In fact, I am making the breakthrough, because we only successful when I am involved in had a certain line of thought. We as­ an experiment myself. It is much more sumed, then, that for the Hall resis­ difficult to develop something at the tance it was necessary to know the desk. magnetic field and other magnitudes. In most cases, things go somewhat And therefore we measured the mag­ differently than planned. During an netic field and all the other magni­ experiment you must have a feeling in tudes and calculated something. your fingertips of what is important and We did not see then that this was the what not: What do I have to under­ wrong way. This is why I can precisely stand? Is what I don't understand, im­ determine the hour of birth of this new portant or unimportant? effect. It was not a new type of curve I think, I have a little bit of this "feel­ that I saw, but only the idea to inter­ ing in my fingertips," which lets me pret these curves in a new way, to go see during the experiment what is im­ in a different direction, by introducing portant. a measure relative to the fundamental And then, there is the capability for constants. Therefore, I know precisely enthusiasm—that you stick to an inter­ that it was Feb. 5, 1980 that I had the esting statement of the problem. You idea that we had to go into a different cannot say, "Now my work day is over," direction. for, possibly, by the next day the The curves and measurements tak­ sample has changed or you may not en afterwards only looked somewhat find your thread again. Sometimes, you nicer; essentially they had been known have to do 10 percent more, but this, for five years. then, yields 100 percent more.

9th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE on LASERS '86 NOVEMBER 3-7, 1986 PEABODY HOTEL ORLANDO, FLORIDA, USA

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS LASERS '86, the Ninth International Conference on Lasers & Applications, will be held at the Peabody Hotel. Orlando. Florida. November 3-7, 1986. under the sponsorship of the Society for Optical and Quantum Electronics. Papers are solicited in the areas of: LASERS APPLICATIONS SCIENCE ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY RADIATION & QUANTUM ELECTRONICS SYSTEMS Authors are requested to submit two copies of both a 35-word abstract and a 200-word summary of their paper to: LASERS '86, P.O. Box 245, McLean. VA 22101. The Deadline for receipt of Abstracts and Summaries is May 1, 1986. Earlier submission is appreciated. Exhibits of the manufacturers of lasers, accessories and systems will be conveniently located to insure a good flow of traffic. Information on booth space can be obtained as indicated below. The announcement of the Call for Papers or other information, including exhibit brochures can be obtained by writing: LASERS '86, P.O. Box 245, McLean, VA 22101 or calling (703) 642-5835 Introducing the perfect 35mm travel film. Prints and Slides HM from the UT^I

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THE UNUSUAL NEW WORLD OF URANUS In its brief flyby of Uranus, Voyager 2 gave us far more knowledge of this distant planet than astronomers have been able to accumulate over the past 200 years. Marsha Freeman and Jim Everett review the preliminary data and discuss the surprises—from Uranus's ring system to its magnetic field. They also take an in-depth look at how the spacecraft was ingeniously retooled by NASA in midflight by remote control to be able to send maximum information to Earth from a distance of 3 billion miles.

Uranus as it would appear to the human eye, in a photo taken by Voyager Jan. 17 from a distance of 6 million miles. Superimposed on the planet are its five major satellites, (a) the innermost moon Miranda, (b) Ariel's southern hemisphere, (c) Umbriel, (d) Oberon, and (e) Titania.

A half-scale model of the Lageos geodynamic satellite, launched in 1976, which tracks the Earth's crustal and rotational motion.

A close-up view of the flow chamber cell sorter of the flow cytometer. The yellow laser beam is shown intersecting the stream of cells.

WHY IS THIS SATELLITE FALLING? According to the accepted laws of physics, the Lageos satellite is in geodynamic orbit in a near-perfect vacuum and should not be falling. Yet scientists have measured a 1.1 millimeter drop per day in its orbit. The fascinating answer ti this puzzle, provided by physicist Benny Soldano, challenges the fundamental "law" of physics that gravitational and inertial mass are equivalent. In our Research Report, Dr. Robert Moon and Carol White interview Soldano and comment on the significance of his work.

HOW LASERS CAN HELP DEFEAT AIDS One of the spinoffs of the beam defense program, the flow cytometer/circular intensity differential scattering technique developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, has the potential to detect—and possibly kill—retroviruses like AIDS that have become amalgamated to the cell structure. Wolfgang Lillge, M.D., discusses why we need a "biological SDI" to push this technology to commercialization.