FRESH WATER FOR SPACE—Spacemen on the moon or on a space platform or spaceship may continuously produce more water than they need with a new high-temperature method of burning wastes described at the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. Frank J. Hendel of North American Aviation, Inc., Downey, Calif., told the Society of a process of oxidizing or burning all human wastes, including perspiration and water vapor from breath to produce more water than is originally used. The water needed for a healthy astronaut is seven pounds each day. (p. 4)

ANTI-PARTICLE DISCOVERED — Three international teams of scientists, working in the United States, Switzerland and France, have discovered and identified one of the last predicted anti-particles of matter, the anti-Xi-minus. Also known as the anti-cascade-hyperon, the tiny particle of anti-matter exists only for one ten-billionth of a second. Nevertheless, it has been observed, measured and photographed, the scientists report in Physical Review Letters, March 15, 1962. The discovery confirms the theory that there is an anti-particle for every known elementary particle.... The anti-Xi-minus is... (p. 4)

KENNEDY URGES BETTER PAY — President John F. Kennedy’s proposal to raise the pay scale for top Government employees should help stem the flow of scientists and engineers now leaving public service for much higher pay in industry.... The top Government salary under most scales is $18,500 a year. Many top positions are not filled because prospective employees would not consider less than $25,000. A comparison of salaries of Government employees and industry employees is remarkable, if not appalling. GS-16 workers, for example, receive between $15,200 and $16,200 while equivalent workers in i... (p. 4)

BOILING REACTOR WILL MAKE SUPERHEATED STEAM — An Argonne National Laboratory experimental reactor achieved criticality for the first time Feb. 9 at the National Reactor Testing Station near Idaho Falls, Idaho. The plant, known as Borax 5, was built at a cost of nearly two million dollars. It will test the feasibility of making superheated steam by utilizing uranium fuel. The steam, in turn, would be used to drive a turbine to produce power. Borax 5 is designed to produce 20,000 kilowatts of thermal power at its maximum capacity. Nuclear superheated steam as used in the Borax 5 is expected to... (p. 4)

EFFECT OF WEIGHTLESSNESS — Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr.’s experience in weightlessness during his coming orbital flight will not be long enough to cause him any undue stress such as that suffered by Cosmonaut Titov, a U.S. Air Force expert reported. “Experiments by the Russians with animals and men as well as our own experiments indicate that man can pretty well tolerate, with little, if any discomfort, a period of four to five hours in a weightless or zero-g environment,” Col. John Paul Stapp, U.S. Air Force School of Aviation Medicine, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, and internationally... (p. 4)

“SPACE WHISKERS” GROWN FOR NEW SPACE MATERIALS — Microscopically small “space whiskers” are being grown by scientists at Rocketdyne, a division of North American Aviation, Inc., Canoga Park, Calif., in search of methods of producing extremely strong new space materials. The fine filament-like crystals are being grown from many materials — lead, tin, copper, graphite, sapphire and even table salt. The tensile strength of the crystals reaches the level of millions of pounds because of the extraordinary perfection of their structure.... Some grow from a base like human whiskers, other... (p. 4)

MOON RACE WILL INCREASE — The race for the moon will become more competitive in 1962 in prestige, military and scientific aspects. Foremost there is developing a national will or desire to explore the moon and put an American landing party on the natural satellite of the earth. This is an objective set forth by President Kennedy last May for an accomplishment of this decade. The U.S. would like to beat the Russians to it. There is a major effort to this end by both National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Air Force. Major space industries are being given large amount... (p. 4)

EARTH AND PLANETS FORMED FROM DUST DRAWN TO SUN — The Earth and all the other planets of the solar system were formed from tiny dust particles accumulating around the sun as it passed through a vast dust cloud in space. This theory on the origin of the solar system was proposed in London by Prof. R.A. Lyttleton of Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.... The sun must have passed through several hundred if not thousands of dust clouds during its lifetime of several billion years. During one of these encounters, the sun’s speed relative to the cloud must have slowed down to a little more... (p. 4)

HORMONES AFFECT NERVES — Add sex hormones to all the other things that can make you feel depressed on some days and elated on others. Evidence that sex hormones can affect the body’s central nervous system in roles unrelated to sexual functions has been reported by physiologists at the University of California, Berkeley. The findings show that a potent female hormone known as estradiol has a marked effect on brain excitability, a fact that may help explain the well-known monthly ups-and-downs of feminine temperament. Contrary effects produced on the brain by male and female hormones also p... (p. 4)

ELECTRONIC COIN TOSSING — An electronic method of tossing coins that determines “heads” or “tails” 200,000 times a second has been devised at the U.S. Navy Electronics Laboratory, San Diego, Calif. The new machine is not a gambling device but is being used to develop automatic signal detection methods for future Navy radar. It promises to have application in civilian communication systems and quality control. In the device, electrical circuits play the part of coins. These electrical circuits rest in either one of two states — these two states represent the heads and tails of the c... (p. 4)