Balloon Clears Arteries A tiny balloon inserted into dangerously clogged arteries at the tip end of a long tube is saving lives by sweeping away the blood clots. A 29-year-old resident in surgery invented the device…. It has been used on 22 patients at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty, now at the University of Oregon Medical School, originated the new … balloon-catheter technique….  A small incision is made either in the groin or other location nearest the clot, and the tube is inserted as far as it will go. The balloon inflates and is filled with... (p. 4)

Thirty years to Mars Men should land on Mars before the century’s end. Some optimists say this could happen by the late 1970s but others argue that the formidable problems to be solved make any time period less than some 30-odd years unrealistic. Unless, they add, there is a now unforeseen breakthrough in launching giant loads into orbit or propelling such loads through interplanetary space. Even before man lands on Mars, however, the question of whether some form of life exists there will be answered ... next year when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will send Mariner o... (p. 4)

A new device now maps the body’s internal organs with sound waves.… Shaped like an oversized fountain pen, the transducer is held over the body above the internal organ to be studied. Short pulses of ultrasonic energy radiate out, and harmlessly bounce back from the internal surfaces. The time they take to return is analyzed, and results are recorded immediately on the instrument’s screen. A “map” of the organ inside the body can thus be studied. The principle is the same as that of sonar systems using sound waves to locate objects under water…. Formerly doctors have relied upon X-... (p. 4)

The atmosphere whistles while scientists work. Series of whistles — short or long, going up scale or down — keep radio scientists busy deciphering their messages of the density of charged particles in the outer regions of the earth’s atmosphere.… Generated by lightning as it strikes the earth, the radio waves are propagated back and forth in the atmosphere of the earth, in a north-south direction…. By analyzing the duration of the whistle tone, the length of time it lasts, and the changes as it slides up or down the musical scale … scientists could construct a model of the earth’... (p. 4)

The first effective technique for measuring the ages of large numbers of stars like the sun has been developed. Providing a powerful research tool for astronomers, the new dating technique is based on relatively simple measurements of a single chemical element, lithium. The age calculations can be applied to both young and “ordinary” stars, as well as to the sun itself. The new method makes possible spotting very young stars among the myriad stars in the sky. With further development, the technique appears certain to give astronomers important evidence on such problems as the origin of sta... (p. 4)

The surgeon’s dream of transplanting organs from the dead to the living seems closer to reality. A man aged 54 died at Leeds (England) General Infirmary. One of his kidneys was removed quickly and placed in a 37-year-old man gravely ill because his kidneys had failed. Four months later the borrowed kidney was still functioning and the doctors were somewhat elated. For the donor and the recipient were unrelated. Nearly all transplants that have approached success in the past have been between identical twins…. Before cadaver transplants can become practical, improvement in overcoming reject... (p. 4)

A new printing invention, electrostatic printing, is expected to have a major impact on the nation’s second largest industry because good quality and inexpensive impressions can be made on virtually any material, from building bricks to fresh fruits and vegetables. In the new process dry ink particles instead of wet ink are screened onto the material to be printed. The particles are attracted to the object or surface by an electrically charged backing plate. The design or image to be printed forms the other electrode plate in the system. The ink particles are then fused permanently on the su... (p. 4)

The surface of the moon may be covered with deep layers of fluffy material into which landing vehicles could sink out of sight…. Research so far has shown that loose particles hit by meteoroids settle down into the moon’s rock or mineral surface. This surface becomes exposed to radiation and breaks down into fine particles of dust. The dust coagulates into larger and larger clumps…. Observed characteristics of a cement powder have been found to match the reflection characteristics of the lunar surface. The conclusion is that the surface of the moon is likely to be composed of cement powd... (p. 4)

It has taken longer than previously credited for the kind of people now on earth to rise to become what we know as modern man. Evidence now is that man and his cultures extend beyond two million years into the past. Radioactive dating has given new time determinations for human ancestors and evolution in the dim anthropological past. The latest “clock” or dating method measures the amount of the chemical element argon in rocks to determine their age…. The date of the earliest skeletal remains, generally conceded “human,” those of Zinjanthropus discovered in Olduvai Gorge, Tanganyika,... (p. 4)

NEW AIR TRANSPORT — Instead of trains on railroads and trucks on expensive highways, the less developed countries in the future are likely to use for their transport hybrid helicopter-airplanes that need only simple landing fields and no roads or rails between. This possibility was offered ... by Dr. Phillip R. Carlson of the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, Calif. The new kind of aircraft would be especially useful in the early stages of area development, operating for distances of less than 500 miles, to establish railroad depots, river ports, and ocean harbors. The new type of craf... (p. 4)