Metals Give Up Secrets m
E PHOTOGRAPHIC action of radiations from radioactive ~ ~ ~ r ~.i l l i a mE. Shoupp, Westinghouse research physicist, to determine the distribution of this element in steel. He found that phosphorus, a n embrittling agent, concentrates inside minute air pockets or blowholes in steel. The same method can be used to show distribution of sulfur, manganese, silicon, and any other constituents of steel that can be made radioactive. A complete analysis in tbis way conceivably will lead to improved metbods of making steel and all kinds of alloys
1phosphorus r e m t ~ yaras used by ~
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ganese, arsenic, copper, tungsten and gold ores have been a m lyzed in this way by Clark Goodman and George Thompson a t Massachusetts Institute of Technolow. It is likelv that an extension of their umeriments will h& to unravel-same of the deep mysteries of the geologic formation of minerals. RE SEAR^ PROGRESS
Cowlerr of "Rasmr'k Prorrrss
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DISTIUB~O OFNMEZALS Radipadive phospho~s leaves its tracks in a &sc of Distribution of tungsten in wolframite ore is shown by the steel. Libt areas represent radioautograph a t the right. Such pictures divnlge informatiqn concentratiodls of phosphom. helpful in refining such ores and may tell tales of the geolog~c The picture Pras made by formation of minerals. clampine the disc to a sheet of In research on stable, non-radioactive isotopes the measure film and storing it for several b o r n in an ordinary tin can ment of isotope ratios is always important and often dil3icult. With deuterium, this can be done by measuring the density of the "heavy water" formed on combustion, but with other elements, such as CL%r N19 the mass spectrometer is virtually the only means of making a determination. Until recently there have heen no suitable mass spectrometers on the market, for routine field use They are now available, however, and work '-
other experiments in the westGghduse laborata& to 6nd out how one metal diiuses into another to form an alloy. Explanations of how an a11w can be stronger than any of its constituents are based mgely on thearet*al evidence. Johnson seeks a practical undmtan(llflg of the way in which the atoms of one metal line up with thosebf another meal to form a homogeneous combination. Distribution and relative concentration of various elements in or& has be& revealed by making these elements radioactive. Because of their economic and sfrategic importance, native man-
Bones are made of materials that must be mewed continuously, b d s Pmfessar David M. Greenberg, of the University of California. He has found that vitamin D acts partly by favoring absomtion of calcium from digestive tracts. and vartlv bv a direet'effect on mineralization bone. ~ompariscniof r&oautograph (left) with a normal section of a rat bone shows that the most active part of the tissue biologically is most active in retention of the radioactive bone replacement materials.
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A tomato plant grown in a solution of radioactive sodium phosphate by Dr. Perry Stout a t the University of Cs fornia Light areas are 2 cumulations of radiopha p b m s . The leaves were removed from the plant 36 hours after the radioactive material was added to the nutrient solution.
haobeen greatly stimulated. But m addition to its use in tracer studies the mass soeetrometer is &dine aoolications in other fields as well. It is particularly valuable as a sensitive inrtrument for gasanalysis. Furnaceatmaspheresand various reaction mixtures have been studied by means of this insuumcnt, which can show the p r w c e of a gaseous constituent in extremely low concentration by the formation and detection of ions of characteristic mass. Considerable research is also being carried on in the study of hydrocarbon mixtures with the mass spectrometer,
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