Books you may not know

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Thomas Schmid, of the Johns Hopkins University Press, displays some of the press's recently published books, such as "Soranus' Gynecology", the first English translation of this ancient Greek medicine book; and "Operations Research for Management", offering operations researchers' solutions to such problems as traffic jams. The Press's director, Harold Ingle, displays a map of the forty university presses in America and notes that Johns Hopkins University Press, established in 1878, is the oldest continuously publishing one. It is the responsibility of these presses to advance scholarly research and diffuse knowledge, and to that end, the Press produces books by scholars for scholars, books by scholars for intelligent laymen, and scholarly journals. Mr. Ingle shows examples of each. Additional featured examples include "Symposium on the Chemical Basis of Heredity", "Truxtun of the Constellation", "Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of America to World Power", and "Ten Centuries of Spanish Poetry", an anthology in both Spanish and English. Editor John Kyle describes the acquisition and appraisal of manuscripts such as "Professional Public Relations and Political Power", by Dr. Stanley Kelley, Jr., who discusses his inspiration for the book. Dr. Malcolm Moos talks about the process of editing "A Carnival of Buncombe", a collection of 69 articles written by H.L. Mencken for the "Baltimore Evening Sun" between 1920 and 1936.

Toys in scienceland

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Lynn Poole and Malcolm Davies, a teacher at Baltimore Junior College, show two children, Marsha Southwick and Richard Tillman, how toys demonstrate basic science principles. For example, key wound spring toys with gears store potential energy. An animated cartoon shows the story of Luigi Galvani, who experimented with the "animal electricity" of severed frogs' legs, and Alessandro Volta, who realized animal tissue was unnecessary for conduction of electricity and built the first battery. The children compare draw, swing, arch, and cantilever bridge designs. They also consider the fulcrum/lever principle of the seesaw and an animation of the operation of a windlass. All of the scientific principles are demonstrated by a battery operated toy crane. Mr. Davies demonstrates how "Robert Robot" works using a Bendix cable and how other toys operate with little motors originally built as tiny fans for radios but made obsolete with the invention of transistors.

Who was here first?

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Dr. George Carter, a human geographer at Johns Hopkins University, studies man's relationship with the physical world and how civilizations developed. He explains the differences between independent inventionists, researchers who believe in indigenous cultures that developed independently, and diffusionists, scholars who maintain that there was early contact between civilizations. Pre-1492 contacts between the old world and the new appear impossible, but evidence shows similarities in games, instruments, tools, math, religion, etc. in both Asia and the Americas. The existence of domestic plants, such as the sweet potato, in both places and with the same name, seems proof that man crossed the oceans during pre-Columbian times. Evidence in art may support the diffusionists too, according to Dr. Gordon Ekholm, curator of archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History. He points to similar Mayan and Cambodian temples and parallel sculptural details such as trefoil arches in Mexico and in Asia.

Seeing in the dark

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Lynn Poole tells how the tenth century Islamic scholar Alhazan described the workings of the camera obscura. Later, Frenchman Niepce discovered an emulsion that could retain a photographic image. Dr. Walter Driscoll, director of research at Baird-Atomic Inc., then shows a chart of the electromagnetic spectrum and notes that while x-rays yield only shadowy pictures and radar waves detect but don't create pictures, germanium and silicon filters block radiated energy and allow infrared light to pass through to form an image. Dr. Driscoll displays a scanning bolometer, which can see in the dark, but the shapes it creates need to be interpreted. He also shows a snooperscope and a film clip of a sniperscope with infrared scope. Previous research on infrared or thermal detection was done by Sir John Frederick William Herschel. Potter Trainer demonstrates and explains the Evaporagraph (EVA), which is based on the principle that all things radiate heat as infrared rays, and shows some of the actual pictures made from heat rather than light. Dr. Walter Baird describes applications of EVA to industry, such as detecting problem-causing hot spots in electronic equipment or indicating heat escape or insulation deficiency in a building. EVA's resolution is 10 lines/mm at best, and it shows temperature contrast of .2 degree. The machine's weakness is the slow speed of response to small temperature differences and the inability to obtain the temperature scale of the item viewed. Nonetheless, Mr. Poole says EVA could play a vital role in civil defense and medicine.

Is X-ray harmful?

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Lynn Poole discusses x-rays for treatment and diagnosis of disease and displays a recent report from the National Academy or Sciences and National Research Council on the biological effects of radiation. Dr. Russell Morgan, Director of Radiology Dept. at Johns Hopkins University, fields questions from members of the press: Nate Hazeltine, a "Washington Post" science writer; Pare Lorentz, a film producer; and Earl Ubell, a reporter and science editor with the "New York Herald Tribune". Dr. Morgan explains that x-rays affect both individual cells and the whole body, making them more susceptible to premature aging. He discusses the research by John Lawrence on the effects of radiation on mice and their extrapolation to man. He also notes a study on radiation vs. non-radiation workers that showed no difference in life spans of the two groups. It is the amount of radiation exposure that determines the effects of the damage. For example, a chest x-ray only delivers about 1/20th roentgen, a unit of radiation. However, Dr. Morgan discusses the feasibility of a reporting system for patients' total x-ray exposure and the need for a set of standards. And he does admit that the complexity and amount of radiation exposure is increasing in diagnostic studies and could double by 1960-65. A film clip demonstrates that this radiation exposure can be reduced by filtration, distance from the x-ray machine, length of time of exposure, and protection of areas not being radiated. Mr. Poole points out that Dr. Morgan has developed a fluoroscopy machine reducing by up to ten times the radiation time. In conclusion, Dr. Morgan discusses whether the Atomic Energy Commission or the U. S. Public Health Services should be responsible for the public's radiation health problems.