Oct 18 1976
From The Space Library
President Ford awarded the National Medal of Science, the highest U.S. award for distinguished scientific achievement, to 15 scientists, one of them now dead: -John W. Backus, IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose, Calif., for contributions to computer programming -Manson Benedict, professor emeritus, MIT, for his role in creating the discipline of nuclear engineering and his leadership in developing techniques for uranium-isotope separation -Hans A. Bethe, professor emeritus of physics, Cornell Univ., for contributions to understanding of the atomic nucleus, the origins of solar heat, and atomic energy -Shiing-Shen Chern, professor of mathematics, Univ. of Calif. at Berkeley, for work leading to discoveries in geometry and topology -George B. Dantzig, professor of operations research and computer sciences, Stanford Univ., for invention of linear programming and methods of using mathematical theory in computers -Hallowell Davis, professor emeritus of physiology, research professor of otolaryngology, Washington Univ., for research leading to advancement in fields ranging from neurology to acoustics and pediatrics -Paul Gyorgy, late professor emeritus of pediatrics, Univ. of Pa. School of Medicine, for discovery of three vitamins and related research in human nutrition Sterling Brown-Hendricks, former chief chemist, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture plant industry station, Beltsville, Md., for research in physical and chemical properties of soils -Joseph 0. Hirschfelder, professor of theoretical chemistry, Univ. of Wisc., for contributions to atomic and molecular quantum mechanics -William H. Pickering, director emeritus, Jet Propulsion Lab., for leadership in exploration of planets and the solar system -Lewis H. Sarett, senior v.p. for science and technology, Merck & Co., for contributions to chemical synthesis of cortisone and other chemotherapeutic agents Frederick E. Terman, v.p. and provost emeritus, Stanford Univ., for his role in creating modern electronics -Orville A. Vogel, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, professor emeritus of agronomy and soils, State Univ. of Wash., for agronomic research including development of semidwarf wheats -E. Bright Wilson, Jr., professor of chemistry, Harvard Univ., for theoretical and experimental contributions to the understanding of molecular structure -Chien-Hsiung Wu, professor of physics, Columbia Univ., for experiments leading to the understanding of the decay of the radioactive nucleus (NYT, 19 Oct 76, 20)
Sweden's Royal Academy of Sciences announced that three more Americans had won Nobel prizes: Prof. William N. Lipscomb, Harvard Univ., for chemistry, and Prof. Burton Richter of Stanford Univ. and Prof. Samuel C. C. Ting of MIT for physics. Prof. Lipscomb won for his studies of the structures and properties of boranes, and Profs. Richter and Ting, shared the physics prize for their independent discoveries of a new type of elementary particle known as psi or J. Americans had won all four of the prizes awarded so far this year; Prof. Milton Friedman of the Univ. of Chicago had won the prize for economics, and the prize for medicine had gone to Dr. Baruch S. Blumberg of the Univ. of Pa. Medical School and Dr. D. Carleton Gajdusek of the Natl. Institute for Neurological Diseases. All the prizes carry an award of $160 000, derived from the estate of Sweden's Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, who established the prizes in 1901. (NYT, 19 Oct 76, 1, 34; 24 Oct 76, E-14)
In separate accounts, Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine emphasized problems arising in USSR attempts to reoccupy the Salyut 5 "military space station." The magazine reported that the Soyuz 21 cosmonauts were forced to return to earth under emergency circumstances 24 Aug. because of "an acrid odor flowing from the Salyut 5 space station environmental control system." Lt. Col. Vitaly Zholobov and Col. Boris Volynov "tolerated the odor for some time but were unable to find the cause of the problem before the odor became unbearable," the magazine said, noting that the mission was the sixth failure in the last nine USSR attempts to complete manned orbital-station missions. In another story in the same issue, the magazine said that "the Soviets believe they have solved the [[[Salyut 5]]] environmental control system's odor problem that forced the early return of the Soyuz 21 crew as demonstrated by the 14 Oct. launch of Soyuz 23 carrying Lt. Col. Vyacheslav Zudov and Lt. Col. Valery Rozhdestvensky. (Av Wk, 18 Oct 76, 13, 25)
The Energy Research and Development Administration announced that a nuclear explosion reported by the Peoples Republic of China 17 Oct. had been detected by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's detection system. The explosion, which occurred underground at 1 a.m. EDT at the Lop Nor test area in western China, was in the low-yield range, ERDA said. (ERDA Release 76-320)
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