SOLVING OF SUN’S RIDDLES — Future space probes may skim as “close” as two million miles from the sun’s visible surface, a report to the National Academy of Sciences suggests. Before this can be done, however, greatly improved materials must be developed since temperatures at that distance would be about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, roughly the melting point of the toughest materials now known. A near-sun space probe is one of the several kinds of solar studies from high-flying balloons, satellites and probes recommended by the Academy’s Space Science Board. The suggested experi... (p. 4)

PARENTS AND DELINQUENCY — A study of 400 juvenile delinquents in a mental hospital showed with “regular frequency” that the parents unconsciously fostered the delinquent behavior in their own children…. The parents show an addiction to the child’s delinquency that is much like drug addiction. They even suffer acute “withdrawal symptoms” when psychiatric treatment results in the child’s abandoning his delinquent behavior. Then the parent is likely, unconsciously, to find excuses to interrupt the treatment or place obstacles in the way of its progress. This unconscious int... (p. 4)

WHISTLING SWANS DYED TO STUDY MIGRATION ROUTE —  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been dyeing whistling swans vivid colors to learn more about their migratory movements. With their wings, tails or other body parts colored blue, yellow, green or red, the swans are easier to observe both when flying and resting on the ground. The Service is interested in determining over which states the birds fly in their annual migrations…. Actually only a very small sampling of the whistling swan population is being dyed. This is because of the difficulty in trapping the four-foot-long birds. ... (p. 4)

MEAT FLAVOR ISOLATED; MAY MAKE ALGAE EDIBLE — Two U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists have isolated and freeze-dried substances that give beef and pork their flavor and aroma. The substances could add flavor to the unappetizing algae that may be grown in interplanetary manned space ships as food for astronauts…. The [researchers] used cold water to extract the flavor substances and then freeze-dried the extract into a powder. When heated, the powder produced the rich aroma of roast meat. The studies showed the main meaty flavor of meats is in their lean parts. But the crucial... (p. 4)

CALIFORNIA ZOO APES BECOME “MEDICAL FIRSTS” — Noell, Scoop and Tria, three apes that live in the San Diego zoo, have made medical history. They “came down” with chicken pox while in their zoo cages during a period last summer when there was a high incidence of that disease among children in San Diego County. Now researchers believe that these three anthropoid apes are the first nonhuman animals to become naturally infected with chicken pox.… Chicken pox has been produced in monkeys by direct inoculation of the virus but there appears to be no references in medical histo... (p. 4)

HIDDEN WATER TRACED BY BOMB FALLOUT IN RAIN — Radioactive fallout from atom bomb tests can be used to seek out and “expose” new sources of drinking water that lie hidden deep in the earth…. Raindrops have an affinity for absorbing minute particles of tritium from the fallout left in the atmosphere after nuclear bomb tests. Scientists seek ways to use these particles as “atomic dog tags” to identify underground water and find out how it percolates into the earth, where it goes and how fast it travels. This, they believe, may be done by taking samples from test wells at differ... (p. 4)

New weight for silver will not affect dimes — An atom of silver weighs less than previously thought, but this new finding of the National Bureau of Standards will not affect the silver dimes in your pockets. A dime will still be worth ten cents. The new atomic weight of silver was set at 107.873 through accurate measurements with a mass spectrometer. The atomic weight currently used is 107.880. The more precise atomic weight of silver may mean that the atomic weights of other elements may have to be adjusted.… What makes the new measurement significant is the fact that the mass spe... (p. 4)

HUMAN SPIES FOR RUSSIA CHEAPER THAN SATELLITES — It would be cheaper for Russia to spy on the U.S. through normal channels than by putting a reconnaissance satellite into orbit…. Russian agents in the U.S. can glean vast amounts of solid information merely by reading several major metropolitan daily newspapers.... The Department of Defense thus takes the attitude that the object recently found circling the earth in a polar orbit probably was the last stage of Russia’s Lunik III and not a reconnaissance satellite…. Spy satellites, when perfected, probably will be able to gather informat... (p. 4)

DISCOVERY ADDS CLUES TO COMPOSITION OF LIGNIN — The sugar glucose is part of the answer to a biochemical riddle — the exact composition of lignin. Lignin, which together with cellulose comprises wood, is a highly complex carbohydrate whose complete structure is unknown. It is considered a waste product.... Experiments … have shown that in Norway spruce trees the lignin is derived from glucose. The discovery was made by feeding the trees with radioactive glucose.… By studying where the radioactivity was located in the lignin the scientists were able to find how the glucose molec... (p. 4)

SAFE SEASONINGS NAMED — Some 150 seasonings and flavorings — ranging from the familiar cinnamon to exotic “ylang-ylang” — have been put on the safe list, the Food and Drug Administration has announced. Manufacturers who use these flavors in their food products need not furnish further proof of their safety. The list includes cloves, nutmeg, thyme, vanilla ... and balsam of Peru.… Seven flavoring substances are on the “wait and see” list, however. Safe usage for these is not “sufficiently well established among qualified experts to permit a formal determination by FDA t... (p. 4)