often improve the color of the final part as well as its resistance to discoloration under ultraviolet light. Mr. Goldsworthy's pipe-curing machine, for example, will cure epoxy resin (in this case Shell's Epon 828) in 30 seconds compared to the hour that's needed in an oven. Glass fiber, coated with the catalyzed resin, is filament wound onto a 5-inch mandrel. At the desired wall thickness, the pipe, still on the mandrel, is exposed in a multimode cavity to 2450-HMz. microwaves generated by a 30-kw. klystron. A helical wiper takes up resin that drips down the outer side of the pipe, ensuring a commercially acceptable finish. Eimac, in San Carlos, Calif., designed and built the microwave module. In its present form, the machine cures pipe in 10-foot lengths. But Mr. Goldsworthy points out that it is simply an adaptation of pipe-making equipment in which a microwave source replaces a hot oven. It should be feasible to make equipment that will produce pipe continuously, he believes. In Yakima, Boise Cascade's system will include a conventional high velocity drying oven and a 50-kw. microwave source. The oven will drive most of the water from the wood sheets. They will then pass through 915-MHz. microwave outlets which should reduce water to within ± 1 % of the desired water content. The water content of the wood is very critical, observes Gerald Gruber, the plant's project manager. Unequal moisture content is the chief cause of rejects. Cryodry also sees promise in the use of microwaves to cure surface coatings on wood. The company last year supplied a 50-kw., 915-MHz. unit to the Plywall division of Evans Products in Corona, Calif. Evans is studying the equipment in curing aqueous- and nonaqueous-based coatings on wood. The big advantage is that microwaves can cure a variety of off-theshelf coating systems, claims Alan Supplee, marketing manager of Cryodry's forest product systems. And the fact that microwave curing is particularly suited to water-based coatings should make it attractive for use in air pollution-conscious communities, he adds. Executive v.p. John Olander echoes Alan Supplee's comments. He notes that water-based coating systems react very favorably to microwaves, whereas with high-energy electron beams (C&EN, Feb. 20, page 4 8 ) , water and many organic solvents act as an electron sink, absorbing electrons before they can initiate reactions. Microwaves, too, unlike electron beams, can get to sharply indented parts and require no shielding.
Isotopes measure heart flaw Aortic valvular insufficiency—a heart problem—can be measured quantitatively in dogs using technetium-99, Dr. Frank Hildner said at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Washington, D.C. The work indicates a way to accurately measure aortic valve damage in humans. Dr. Hildner says he and his coworkers believe their method is superior to physical examination and phonocardiography for determining the insufficiency, in which the valve between the left ventricle and the aorta, the large artery that carries blood away from the heart, is damaged in such a way that the blood refluxes from the aorta into the ventricle. Dr. Hildner and his group at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit use radioactive tracers to tag blood as it moves through the left ventricle and aortic valve of the heart. They and Dr. William R. Pierson and his coworkers at Ford Motor's scientific laboratories in Dearborn observed similar results in a simulated heart using sodium-24. The amount of injected radioisotope is measured directly in vivo in a dog's heart and its change with time is followed directly. Cardiologists can also determine the values of end diastolic (heart relaxed) and end systolic (ventricle contracted) volumes, relative to the stroke volume (output of blood per beat). The team at Ford built a mechanical heart which simulated the function of the left ventricle. Before the experiment, the pressures in all the chambers were adjusted to normal heart values to approach flow and pressure behavior characteristic of humans. At the beginning of the experiment, a few microcuries of sodium-24 (as sodium carbonate) were injected into the apparatus. If the outflow valve (simulating the aortic valve) were seated properly after each contraction of the ventricle, the isotope would not enter the pump chamber, and a recording would show a normal valve. If the valve were not seated properly, the isotope would reflux into the pump chamber and the recording would show an abnormal valve. This behavior simulates regurgitation (where blood refluxes from the aorta into the ventricle) and thus a heart with aortic valvular insufficiency. Using the normal and abnormal valve readings, the Michigan scientists could calculate the per cent regurgitation. In another set of experiments, the cardiologists measured regurgitation in the hearts of dogs. The aortic pressure tracings, isotope curves, and electrocardiogram were recorded simultaneously. The electronic equipment was essentially the same as that for the in
Physician Hildner Ready for clinical trial
vitro experiments. However, technetium-99 was used as the tracer. Technetium-99, as sodium pertechnetate, was used because its low energy also permitted use of a smaller detector. Because the radioactivity of technetium-99 disappears rapidly, the radiation dose to the patient is low. The experiments in dogs were made on both damaged and undamaged aortic valves. The measured differences in output volumes of blood per unit time between normal and abnormal valve conditions represented total regurgitant volume. From this the actual per cent insufficiency could be calculated. Dr. Hildner points out that the experiments on dogs were made to provide a gross check on the measurements made on the model. The Ford scientists find excellent agreement between the in vivo and in vitro data. Results of this study indicate that the isotope technique for measuring aortic insufficiency quantitatively is suitable for clinical trial.
Goals study due for engineers The interim report on goals of engineering education—due out about the middle of March—will likely show little change in recommendations from those of the now 17-month-old preliminary report, judging by indications at last week's 61st national meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, in Houston. The goals study was made by the American Society for Engineering Education at the request of the Engineers' Council for Professional Development. The interim report was planned as a way station to a final version, after the preliminary report last year stirred up heated and oftentimes bitter controversy in engineering circles. But the interim version evidently contains only FEB.
27, 1967 C&EN 15
a softening of the most controversial recommendations, along with a lessrigid schedule proposed for their adoption. In reviewing some of the recommendations coming in the interim report, chemical engineer Joseph L. McCarthy, dean of the graduate school at the University of Washington and a member of the board of analysts for the goals committee, pointed out some changes in terminology relative to levels of education. "Basic" will replace "graduate" in indicating educational levels. "Basic education" will be that needed to enter a profession. There apparently will be no specific time definition, such as "four-year bachelor's degree." This modification comes as a result of strong opposition to a recommendation in the preliminary report. It stated that the first professional degree should be a master of engineering, without qualifying adjectives, that is awarded upon completion of an integrated program of at least five years' duration (C&EN, July 11, 1966, page 40). Another recommendation states that the four-year bachelor's degree should be continued as an introductory engineering degree. The new recommendation will say that the engineering profession recognizes a need for graduate education and that it should take steps to meet the needs of a majority of B.S. engineers in the future who will work for some additional education. This will partially replace earlier recommendations. Another recommendation that will be modified concerns financial support of research. Opposition to the original recommendation resulted from the suggestion that arrangements be made so that industry could participate, possibly through a nationwide private foundation patterned after the National Merit Scholarship Foundation. The proposed foundation would pool contributions from individual firms and dispense research grants to professors and schools. Opponents felt that a national foundation approach would be detrimental to the goal of greater industrial support. The new recommendation will point out that not all companies can handle proposals for research grants or make contributions and make grants. Controversy also arose. over a recommendation that accreditation by the Engineers' Council for Professional Development be changed from specific curricular accreditation to accreditation of the overall engineering unit (for example, the engineering college). The new version makes accreditation of the overall engineering unit optional. It continues accreditation of specific curriculums by the appropriate 16 C&EN FEB. 27, 1967
Engineer McCarthy Less rigid schedule for adoption
society—such as approval of a chemical engineering curriculum by AIChE. The goals study has been financed by the National Science Foundation. The final report is now scheduled for October of this year. Originally, ASEE's goals committee had planned to issue its final report in 1966.
Oppenheimer dead at 62 Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, who died at his Princeton, N.J., home Feb. 18 at 62, probably was the last and most prestigious scientific figure to fall victim to the Communist witch hunts inspired by the late Sen. Joe McCarthy. The government career of the worldrenowned physicist had come to an end in the 1950's in a storm of controversy. Dr. Oppenheimer was best known as director of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, a post he assumed early in 1943. While there he directed the work which culminated in the explosion of the first atomic device, July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, N.M. He
Physicist Oppenheimer A storm of controversy
has been dubbed "the father of the A-bomb." In 1947 he became director of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, a post he held until 1966. Until early 1954 Dr. Oppenheimer, acting in an advisory capacity, played a strong part in government atomic affairs. With Dean Acheson and David E. Lilienthal he drafted a plan for international nuclear control. And when the Atomic Energy Commission was created he became the first head of its General Advisory Committee. This was AEC's chief scientific council. After the Russians exploded their atomic bomb in 1949, a group headed by Dr. Edward Teller urged that the U.S. push ahead with developing a hydrogen bomb. Dr. Oppenheimer and the majority of AEC's advisory committee strongly opposed this. Eventually, President Truman made the decision to go ahead with a crash H-bomb program. Although Dr. Oppenheimer's opposition brought no immediate censure, it came back to haunt him in 1954. In the early 1950's, the cold war and the uncovering of a Soviet atomic spy network generated a national feeling of uneasiness. Spurred on by head Communist hunter McCarthy, the hunt for alleged Communists, especially in Government, became almost an hysterical epidemic. In this atmosphere Dr. Oppenheimer came under suspicion for his association with left-wingers in the late thirties and early forties and his opposition to the H-bomb. In 1954, AEC, acting on the recommendations of a special security board, removed Dr. Oppenheimer's security clearance. That was the end of his government career. The board concluded that Dr. Oppenheimer was "loyal" but asked for removal of his security clearance. The reasons: His conduct and associations reflected a serious disregard for the security system, he was susceptible to influence, and his conduct in the hydrogen bomb program was "disturbing." To these charges Dr. Oppenheimer merely replied that he had never been a Communist and noted that his early association with left-wingers and leftwing groups was well known to the Government before he went to work on the A-bomb project. In December 1963, Dr. Oppenheimer was presented the Enrico Fermi award, the Atomic Energy Commission's highest honor. Some viewed this as an official return to grace, but it was not enough to coax the physicist out of his atomic seclusion. Dr. Oppenheimer received an A.B. from Harvard in 1925 and a Ph.D. from Gottingen University, in Germany, in 1927. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1941.
