Discoveries from 1962 in the fields of Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Meteorology, and Physics.

1. More Science News from 1962
By Donald Dale Milne
https://www.roadtrip62.com/more-science-news-from-1962.htm
This week, Roadtrip-‘62 ™ takes a break from the road and looks at scientific news from our favorite year of 1962. At a high level, science is often
divided into three fields: Formal sciences, Natural sciences, and Social sciences. The Formal sciences include Mathematics, while the Social sciences focus on
human behavior. I’m focusing on the Natural sciences, which are the study of natural phenomena throughout the universe. For convenience, I will try to find a
couple of important 1962 events in each of the following disciplines of Natural science:
Astronomy,
Biology,
Chemistry,
Geology,
Meteorology,
Physics

2. Astronomy
Radio telescope at Green Bank Observatory, West Virginia, in 1962.
(Photo from Green Bank Observatory (see https://greenbankobservatory.org/ ) on Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/ ).)
The year 1962 saw the first successes in exploration of our solar system using spacecraft. The first solar observatory, OSO, orbited the sun from 350
miles above it and revealed that solar flares contain both low-energy and high-energy X-rays. NASA also sent a Venus probe, Mariner II. This spacecraft
confirmed that the Earthy is surrounded by a cloud of micrometeorites or dust. It also studied the atmosphere of Venus. Using a carefully designed flight path,
Mariner II passed both the Earthward and Sunward sides of Venus. In addition to the space probes, two new radio antennae went into service on Earth in 1962.
One was at Green Bank, West Virginia and one in Australia. The radio telescope at Green Bank was the largest dish in the world at the time, over 300 feet in
diameter. One 1962 discovery was of radio waves emitted by ever more distant galaxies that were not visible by optical telescopes due to their distance and low
levels of light versus high levels of radio waves. Sadly, the original telescope collapsed in 1988 due to a damaged gusset plate. A new telescope was constructed
on the site and began regular science operations in 2001. The Green Bank location has been the site of radio astronomy telescopes since 1957 and currently
houses seven additional telescopes.

3. Biology
Doctor giving a measles vaccination to a young boy at Fernbank School in Atlanta, Georgia, 1962
(Public domain photo from Centers for Disease Control / Smith Collection.)
As explained on my page "Polio, Measles, Influenza, and More – 1962 Had More Problems than a COVID Epidemic", along with the successful
deployment of the Sabin oral polio vaccine in 1962, other discoveries related to viruses were made (see also https://www.roadtrip62.com/polio-measles-
influenza-and-more-1962-had-more-problems-than-a-COVID-epidemic.htm#polio ). Very small viruses called bacteriophages were discovered that contained
only RNA, but no DNA. Also, a virus that attacks tobacco plants was synthesized in a laboratory, by assembling the proteins needed to create it. Both of these
discoveries were hoped to lead to better virus control in the future. Some viruses that can cause or contribute to cancer were also identified. Their connection to
cancer was not yet well defined however, as they can remain dormant for many years before a cancer may emerge.

4. Chemistry
Technetium sample (Photo by Albert Fenn, from “Matter”, Life Science Library, 1963.)
Researchers working with the so-called “noble” gasses created two compounds of the element xenon. The “noble” gasses were long thought to be
unable to form compounds. However, Dr. Neil Bartlett at the University of British Columbia discovered that the gas platinum hexafluoride oxidized xenon to
form xenon hexafluoroplatinate. Soon after, other researchers at Wheaton College and Argonne National Laboratory created the simpler compound of xenon
tertrafloride. By 1971, more than 80 xenon compounds were known along with many compounds of the other “noble” gasses.
In other elemental research, the element technetium was discovered in trace amounts in a uranium ore sample from South Africa. It had long been
thought to be only manmade and not found in nature. The General Electric Company invented a "direct" process for making diamonds. They were able to create
diamonds directly from carbon using a combination of high pressures and temperatures. Other chemical research was more focused on useful products, such as
developing new detergents that would be more biodegradable than existing detergents. Real soap was highly biodegradable, but modern detergents in 1962 were
not and authorities and the public were becoming concerned about their buildup in the environment and in drinking water sources.

5. Geology
Watch the video of the Project Sedan underground nuclear explosion, Nevada, 1962, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e64T5VEYMYM&t=65s .
In retrospect, one of the most disturbing ideas in geology was under study in 1962. Nuclear tests were moving from the atmosphere to underground
during this year because it was recognized that radioactive fallout in the atmosphere was dangerous worldwide. But the move to underground tests had scientists
and engineers considering purposefully using nuclear blasts to excavate on a large scale. They also considered using the blasts to frack rocks to release oil and
natural gas, and even consolidate loose soils to provide more stable building sites! Tests and studies for such construction projects were carried out under the
name Project Plowshare in the United States and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions in Russia. Project Plowshare began with the Project Gnome test near Carlsbad,
New Mexico in December of 1961. The largest test, Project Sedan, was performed at the Atomic Energy Commission's Yucca Flats Nevada Test Site on July 6,
1962. Another 26 tests were carried out between 1962 and 1973 and resulted in design of one project that almost went to the construction stage. Project Chariot
would have used several hydrogen bombs to excavate an artificial harbor at Cape Thompson, Alaska. It was never carried out due to concerns for native
populations and little potential use for the harbor to justify the risk and expense.

6. Meteorology
TIROS VI weather satellite (Public domain photo by NASA / Glenn Research Center.)
The big news in 1962 was the beginning of the use of satellites for meteorological study and observation. Three TIROS satellites were launched that
year, supplementing the three launched in 1960-1961. Unfortunately, these early satellites were short lived, with all but one failing within a year of launch.
However, they proved the concept of using images from Earth orbit to view the weather and began to make predictions more accurate. They created still pictures
stored on tape as they orbited, that were stored and transmitted back to Earth as the satellite approached a ground command point. After transmission, the tape
was erased or cleaned and readied for more recording. The photos proved particularly useful for analysis of weather in remote areas, including hurricane
analysis, and for decision-making in manned space flights.

7. Physics
Laser retroreflector deployed by Astronaut Buzz Aldrin near the lunar module, 1969. (Public domain photo by NASA.)
Nearly all new discoveries in physics in 1962 were on the subatomic level. For example, two kinds of neutrinos were confirmed, which only raised
more theoretical questions about them and their relations to muons and electrons. All are involved in a certain type of radioactive decay known as beta decay,
and thus are important to the ability to properly calculate what happens during that decay. Many of the experiments on subatomic particles had been carried out
at the University of California at Berkely and the Europen Center for Nuclear Research, but in 1962 a new particle accelerator came online. The Cambridge
Electron accelerator, operated by Harvard University and M.I.T. was the first to push electrons up to the multibillion electron volt energy range. One of the
projects this machine will work on is as an electron microscope to study the internal structure of atoms.
Laser technology continued to improve in 1962 also, with experiments discovering that harmonics could be produced in laser light, just as they occur
with sound. On May 9, in 1962, a red light laser beam was sent through the University of Michigan's 37-inch telescope by a team of scientists from M.I.T. The
beam successfully bounced off the Aristarchus crater on the moon, chosen because of the crater’s high reflectivity, similar to white sand. It was the first lunar
laser ranging experiment. A permanent laser reflector was later set up on the moon during the Apollo 11 landing at Tranquility Base in 1969.

8. The Labs Septic, a hypersurface discovered by Oliver Labs
(Licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ ).)
I’ll close with a piece of news on mathematics, which is not usually considered one of the Natural Sciences. John Milnor of Princeton University was
awarded the Fields Medal in 1962 for his work in differential topology. The Fields Medal is awarded every four years for outstanding or seminal research in
mathematics. We won’t be considering anything as complex as the complex hypersurface above, but join me anyway next time on Roadtrip-‘62 ™.

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Author of Roadtrip-'62TM ( https://www.roadtrip62.com/ ), Donald Dale Milne
If you haven’t heard of nor Roadtrip-'62 ™ , my name is Don Milne and I'll be your travel guide on this virtual tour of the U. S. of A. First, I suppose
you're wondering why nor Roadtrip-'62 ™ is different from other travel sites? There's a very simple answer: everybody else travels only in space, but we also
travel in time! That's right, we don't just go somewhere, we also go somewhen. And the when is 1962. We'll try to see what's left today from 1962, by driving as
if it were 1962. We will drive on highways as they were in 1962, try to eat only at restaurants that existed in 1962, try to stay only at motels that existed in 1962,
try to buy gas and sundries, play the music, see only the sites across America, and just generally live in America as it was in 1962!
What we will do is enjoy the FUN of cross-country driving. And the fun of cross-country travel is all the differences from our everyday life! We'll talk
about politics, food, great inventions, how people lived, television, and more. We'll get to see some of the people that made our history; that made this country
great. We'll stumble across unexpected pleasures, like one trip I made through Cherokee, North Carolina where I just happened to be in town as the 1996
Olympic Torch procession came through on it's way to Atlanta, Georgia. You really never know what you'll find when you travel!

10. 1962-style US-23 signs
Now, let's see where we'll be going! We're going to drive the US-numbered routes of 1962. Because we'll be using the roads of 1962, that means we
won't be on freeways very much. There weren't many freeways in 1962, as the country had just begun building the Interstate system,, so we'll travel mostly the
two-lanes through every little town on the way. Sometimes even where there was a freeway, I'll go back on the old road just to see what was there. Anyway, even
if there was a freeway in 1962, it was only there for a couple of years and things had not changed much. Sometimes a "business route" ran through a town on the
old route, because there were no services at the freeway interchanges yet.
Just in case you're asking why 1962, it's because I remember 1962. I traveled on my first freeway as a boy with my dad about that time, and fell in love with both
travel and freeways. But, besides my own memories and the fact that it was a time largely before interstate freeways, 1962 is just cool...wait and see! And I'm
writing this virtual tour just because I like to drive. I like to go places, see things, and just drive for the joy of driving! I decided I want to talk about it, to share
the fun with others. I'll be doing the driving on our Roadtrip-'62 ™, but if you see anything you like, I encourage you to get out on the road and enjoy it in person.
This virtual roadtrip may be fun, but there's nothing like the real thing!