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The authors state that an increasing number of people are understanding the enormous importance of the nuclear controversy with 2000 scientists warning against nuclear energy in France; Germany and Japan are recording more and more persons opposing it; England slowing its nuclear program; Holland and Austria declining to expand their very small programs; the nuclear issue is a first political question in Sweden; Norway and Denmark are not building any reactors; East European countries are expanding very small nuclear programs; and the program in the USSR is 10 percent of that in the USA. The World Council of Churches discussed the issue at their annual meeting in Nairobi. Discussions on nuclear energy take place at technical and broad issue levels. The authors state that small research reactors are an invaluable scientific tool, but when they get large enough to produce a large portion of electric power of a country, they also produce large quantities of plutonium and other radioactive elements. They summarize their objections to nuclear reactors in four points: mass production of poisonous substances; production of plutonium as an atomic bomb substance; nuclear energy is not necessary; and the economy of nuclear energy. Others have said that the nuclear establishment claims it knows all the technical details of a reactor and that the anti-nuclear establishment is largely emotional. The authors see this remark in an opposite view: they feel that nuclear technologists' work will become obsolete in about two decades, industrialists have invested billions in an industry that is to be defunct, and politicians have funded projects that will not benefit the country; further, all these people become emotional when they hear these unpleasant truths. (MCW)

The deficiency of siderophiles in the crust of the Earth is customarily attributed to leaching by metallic nickel-iron, which eventually sank to form the core. A similar deficiency exists in the Moon, which has, at best, a very much smaller core. Hence it is logical to consider the hypothesis that the Moon formed from the mantle of the Earth, after the siderophiles had been removed. It is shown that the non-hydrostatic figure of the Moon, and the requirement that the mascons must be supported, together with the high heat-flow, imply that the metal of the Moon is collected in the core. It probably amounts to less than 1 % of the Moon’s mass. Calculations show that if the core is in chemical equilibrium with the lunar silicates, then the nickel has been removed from the Moon as a whole to an extent which is greater than can be explained by theories of direct formation from a nebula. The only salvation for the idea of direct formation from a nebula appears to be an efficient process of extraction of the siderophiles by successive passage of small amounts of reduced metal through the silicate portion of the Moon. Since natural processes do not usually operate with the required efficiency, it can be concluded that the formation of the Moon by the fission of the Earth is geochemically plausible.

The role and relative contributions of different forms of energy to the synthesis of amino acids and other organic compounds on the primitive earth, in the parent bodies or carbonaceous chondrites, and in the solar nebula are examined. A single source of energy or a single process would not account for all the organic compounds synthesized in the solar system. Electric discharges appear to produce amino acids more efficiently than other sources of energy and the composition of the synthesized amino acids is qualitatively and quantitatively similar to those found in the Murchison meteorite. Ultraviolet light is also likely to have played a major role in prebiotic synthesis. Although the energy in the sun's spectrum that can be absorbed by the major constituents of the primitive atmosphere is not large, reactive trace components such as H2S and formaldehyde absorb at longer wavelengths where greater amounts of energy are available and produce amino acids by reactions involving hot hydrogen atoms. The thermal reaction of CO + H2 + NH3 on Fischer-Tropsch catalysts generates intermediates that lead to amino acids and other organic compounds that have been found in meteorites. However, this synthesis appears to be less efficient than electric discharges and to require a special set of reaction conditions. It should be emphasized that after the reactive organic intermediates are generated by the above processes, the subsequent reactions which produce the more complet biochemical compounds are low temperature homogenous reactions occurring in an aqueous environment.

An elemental abundance table along the lines used by Suess and Urey (1956) is presented. Since this early work, other studies have been made, and improvement in the abundance tables has been made as more reliable data have become available. Some changes in the original tables have been made, but the original abundances and their variations with mass numbers remain remarkably similar. The solar abundance of iron for many years appeared to be very much less relative to silicon than would be indicated by the data from the meteorites.

Recent evidence indicates that some of the chondritic meteorites may come from the Moon or Mars. The arguments leading to such a conclusion are reviewed. Such places of origin require that the origin of the chondrules be reconsidered. It is concluded that a collisional process is the most reasonable one consistent with a lunar origin.

Lunar fines and a chip from inside a rock pyrolyzed in helium at 700 degrees C gave methane, other gases, and aromatic hydrocarbons. Benzene/methanol extracts of fines yielded traces of high molecular weight alkanes and sulfur. Traces of glycine, alanine, ethanolamine, and urea were found in aqueous extracts. Biological controls and a terrestrial rock, dunite, subjected to exhaust from the lunar module descent engine showed a different amino acid distribution. Interpretation of the origin of the carbon compounds requires extreme care, because of possible contamination acquired during initial sample processing.

In considering our space program, it is well to study objects that arrive from extraterrestrial sources quite without any effort or expense on our part. It is my purpose to discuss recent and older observations of meteorites and to draw some tentative conclusions from them. Meteorites are objects of variable structure and chemical composition, and a complete review of their properties is impossible in a brief time; therefore, this discussion will be limited to some specific features from which certain conclusions will be drawn. I believe that these conclusions will not be contrary to evidence that is not reviewed.

The following statements have been supplied to the Bulletin by some of this country's most distinguished scientists. Albert Einstein, the worlds most famous theoretical physicist, has been a U.S. citizen since 1933. He is a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Hans A. Bethe is professor of physics at Cornell University. Harold C. Urey, Nobel Prizewinner, is Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Institute for Nuclear Studies, University of Chicago. James Franck, Nobel Prizewinner in physics, is professor of physical chemistry at the University of Chicago. Samuel A. Goudsmit is senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Cyril S. Smith is director of the Institute for the Study of Metals at the University of Chicago. Arthur H. Compton, another Nobel Prizewinner in physics, is chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. William P. Murphy, Nobel Prizewinner in medicine, is the co- discoverer of liver treatment for pernicious anemia.

Considerable evidence of diverse kinds has accumulated during the last 6 years indicating that some or possibly most of the stone meteorites come from the moon. Included in these may well be the carbonaceous chondrites of the Orgueil type and this indicates that contamination of the moon with terrestrial water has occurred. This statement does not depend on the carbonaceous matter being of biotic origin. Models for the origin of the moon are consistent with the hypothesis that some contamination of this kind occurred. This conclusion is possible regardless of whether the meteorites come from the moon or not.

The four deuteromethanes were prepared. Their vibrational Raman spectra were photographed under high dispersion. A total of 20 lines were analyzed. A discussion, in the light of the general theory, is given of a sequence of observed overtones.

The Ranger VII, VIII, and IX pictures of the moon show certain features quite unequivocally about the lunar surface. 1. It appears that a very considerable amount of erosion and fragmentation of the surface by micro- and macrometeorite bombardment and probably other processes has taken place. It would seem that the evidence indicates that this layer is some 10 or 20 m deep as a minimum. 2. There is considerable evidence for slump features on the moon. This probably includes the dimple craters as well as certain crevasses that are seen in all these pictures but particularly in the Alphonsus pictures. The volcanic activity indicated in the Ranger IX pictures is of a very mild type and the craters do not resemble any terrestrial volcanic features at all. They are very broad and apparently have been produced by the escape of gases from the lunar interior. It would appear that they might have been produced initially by collisions which were then modified by gas escaping, though one of these craters has an elliptical shape, arguing against this interpretation. 3. Various lines of evidence indicate that the material of the maria floors and especially of the Alphonsus floor consist of fragmented material to a very considerable depth, with substantial crevasses below the surface. It is not possible to decide whether such crevasses are the result of lava flows or the evaporation of massive amounts of water from beneath the surface. It is, however, the author’s opinion that the water interpretation is the more likely of the two. 4. The mountainous areas in the neighbourhood of Alphonsus are remarkably smooth as compared with the crater floor. This indicates that the crater rim consists of different material from the crater floor. 5. Secondaries are a prominent feature of all these Ranger pictures. Objects of more than a million tons have been thrown from Tycho to Mare Cognitum, a distance of 1000 km . It appears probable that the curious rays of Tycho which missed the craters may indeed be due to particles that have travelled completely around the Moon, and it seems likely that objects of meteoritic size have been thrown off the Moon and have arrived at the Earth. It seems to me that it would be well to be rather conservative in regard to the interpretation of these pictures. The maria of the Moon may consist of lava flows. They may be fragmented material. They may have been subjected to water at some time in their history. But the evidence of pictures alone is not sufficient to make a firm decision in regard to these conclusions.

The problem of the accumulation of the Moon is discussed on the assumption that the Moon is a captured object. If it is such, it is highly improbable that it is the only object of this kind present in the early solar system. Evidence indicating that other massive objects were present at that time is presented. Also, it is pointed out that the interior of the Moon must contain normal solar proportions of the elements of intermediate volatility in the lunar interior, if the Moon accumulated in a gas sphere.

A search for diamonds in the chondrites Richardton, Forest City, Holbrook. Warrenton, Indarch, Cold Bokaveld and Cape Girardeau and in the Goalpara achondrite has been made. Diamonds were found in Goalpara only.

From the standpoint of chemistry, the following properties of life appear to be important. Living things maintain metabolic processes, that is, chemical reactions in which compounds of one kind are absorbed by living things and compounds of another kind excreted. Animals absorb compounds containing high free energy and excrete those with low free energy. Plants absorb certain compounds of low free energy, i.e., carbon dioxide, excrete compounds of high free energy, oxygen plus carbohydrates, for example, and at the same time maintain a complex metabolism in which high energy compounds are used for living processes. This dynamic metabolic process is an exceedingly important characteristic of living things. In the second place, living organisms are distinguishable from their surroundings. We would not consider an ocean in which chemical reactions of a general type such as that mentioned above were taking place as a living organism. A living organism has form and structure, and this is of a very complicated and intricate kind in the case of modern organisms. The possibility of maintaining these exceedingly complicated and highly organized bodies can only be done in the face of the degenerating processes that are predicted on the basis of natural accidents by very special arrangements. Inevitably a single living organism will degenerate or be destroyed by accident. Hence the persistence of living things in the face of this degenerative tendency can only be maintained by some other mechanism, and that mechanism is the replicative characteristic. Living organisms are able to produce additional living organisms of a fairly perfect or at least operative kind and hence make allowance for the destruction of organisms that have been damaged or degenerated. The replicative function is a necessity. The free energy for this process which enables the living organism to overcome the requirements of an increase of entropy in all processes is, of course, free energy from the sun.

The summations of state and free energies of the molecules H21, H22 and H1H2 have been calculated at temperatures from 20.4 to 700°K and their dependence on the spin and statistics of H2 discussed and illustrated. The equilibrium constants of the reaction H21+H22 = 2 H1H2 are found to deviate markedly from the value 4 expected from simple probability considerations. The equilibrium constants of the reactions H21+2 H2Cl⇄H22+2 H1Cl and H21+2 H2I→H22+2 H1I have been calculated and found to be appreciably different from unity, showing that appreciable differences in equilibrium constants of chemical reactions may be expected depending on which isotope of hydrogen enters into the reaction. Small differences in the electrode potentials of the two hydrogen isotopes may be expected but no exact estimates have been made.

The Rb87-Sr87ages of many of the lunar rocks suggest that the fundamental differentiation took place 4.5 × 109yr ago and that remelting occurred without exchange of the rubidium and strontium with the surroundings. The Apollo A rocks are an exception to this. They appear to have acquired rubidium without all of the Sr87produced during the first aeon. Also in the remelting about half of the radiogenic leads were lost to the surroundings probably the soil by a vaporization process. We interpret these results to mean that remelting occurred in a system that was nearly closed to the surroundings and that the high early concentrations of radioactive elements in highly insulating surroundings made this possible.

The ratio of vapor pressures of H2O16 and HDO16 and of H2O16 and H2O18 have been determined at four temperatures between 11.25°C and 46.35°C. The ratio of vapor pressures of HDO16 are very nearly the geometric mean of the vapor pressure of H2O16 and D2O16. The vapor pressure of H2O18 varies from approximately 0.8 to 1.2 percent less than the vapor pressures of H2O16 for temperatures between 46.35°C and 11.25°C. The application of these to the separation of the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes by distillation is discussed. It seems possible that the hydrogen isotopes can be separated by the fractional distillation of water, but that the separation of the oxygen isotopes by this method will be considerably more difficult.

An experiment centering around a mass spectrometer is described, which is aimed at the identification of organic substances present in the top 10 cm of the surface of Mars and an analysis of the atmosphere for major and minor constituents as well as isotopic abundances. In addition, an indication of the abundance of water in the surface and some information concerning the mineralogy can be obtained by monitoring the gases produced upon heating the soil sample. The organic material will simply be expelled by heating to 150, 300, and 500 C into the carrier gas stream of a gas chromatograph interfaced to the mass spectrometer or by slowly heating the sample in direct communication with the spectrometer. It is planned to analyze a total of up to nine soil samples in order to study diurnal and seasonal variations. The system is designed to give useful data even for minor constituents if the total of organics should be as low as 5 ppm. The spectrometer covers the mass range of 12-200 with adequate resolution.

FOR many years astronomers have recognized certain conditions which must be met by any correct theory for the origin of the solar system. Sir HAROLD SP~'NC~ JON~S reviewed these conditions in Volume I of this series and has given an excellent review of the theories which have been proposed by astrophysicists and others during the past centuries, and particularly of the more recent attempts at such theories, It is evident that these theories are inadequate and in many ways unsatisfactory though certainly valuable ideas are contained in the more recent ones. It is the purpose of this chapter to review additional evidence which has been developed in recent years, or the importance of which has been recognized recently. It is evident that this additional information is of great importance in devising theories and in selecting between various plausible possibilities. It is not at all certain that it is sufficient to lead to reasonable agreement on a proper theory of the origin of the solar system among students of the subject.

The chemical exchange method has been applied to the separation of the isotopes of carbon. Various exchange reactions have been tested, using counter‐current flow in packed fractionation columns, and of these, the exchange between hydrogen cyanide gas and a solution of sodium cyanide in water has been found to be most efficient. In this exchange, the isotope of carbon of atomic weight 13 (ordinarily present to the extent of 1.06 percent) is concentrated in the gas phase. Suitable conditions for the exchange have been determined, and a satisfactory apparatus has been devised. Using two fractionation units in a cascade arrangement, sodium cyanide, containing carbon of 25 atom percent C13, has been produced at a rate of 2.5 grams per day. This corresponds to a transport of 0.15 grams of C13 per day. In all, more than 20 grams of carbon, containing 25 percent of C13, and additional quantities of less concentrated material, have been obtained in this way.

“No one has the right to withdraw from the world of action at a time when civilization faces its supreme test.”

Some sixty years ago, G.K. Gilbert wrote a remarkable paper on the structure and origin of the Moon's surface, and subsequent students of the subject with various scientific backgrounds have come to similar conclusions, often without knowing of the previous work. Gilbert's ideas and those of other investigators are reviewed and some new points are added. It is contended that the Moon was formed at predominantly low temperatures, that the face of the Moon was fashioned mostly at the terminal stage of its formation and during a period of 105 years or less, that it was always at a distance substantially greater than the Roche limit, and that the craters, mountains, and maria are mostly the result of collisions of satellites of the Earth-Moon system with its surface.

A method of analysis of mixtures of protium and deuterium oxides is presented. It consists in calibrating the apparent difference in indices of refraction of natural water and that containing higher concentrations of deuterium oxide, as obtained by a Zeiss water interferometer, against the corresponding differences in specific gravities. It is found that these two quantities are not proportional. The precision of measurement in the neighborhood of an experimentally determined specific gravity in a 40.06 mm cell is 0.01 percent.

A study was made of the exchange of oxygen and carbon in the reactions: CO2 (dissolved)+H2O⇄H2CO3,CO2 (dissolved)+OH−⇄HCO3−. It was found that the rate of the first could be increased four or five times and the rate of the second up to 2000 times by heterogeneous catalysis. Investigation of the use of these catalyzed reactions for separation of the oxygen and carbon isotopes was carried out both by the use of a static bomb technique and by the operation of fractionating columns. The effects of different operating conditions were indicated, and the necessity for turbulent flow in the gas phase was established. Pressures from one through fifty atmospheres were tried, as the increase of CO2 pressure increases the concentration of CO2 (dissolved) and thus speeds up the exchange.A comparison of the above method with the HCN – CN− method of separation of carbon isotopes shows the cyanide exchange to be somewhat faster and to require less time to come to production, somewhat doubtful advantages when they must be...

A survey of the abundances of elements in the ocean and sedimentary rocks as compared to their abundances in the weathered igneous rocks shows that carbon, nitrogen, oxygen as water, chlorine, bromine and boron are highly concentrated in the surface materials and that thicknesses of from 17 to 89 km of the outer part of the earth would be required to produce these elements if all of them now present in the igneous rocks were removed. A study of the available information indicates that many other elements would be concentrated at the earth’s surface if chlorine, bromine and boron were concentrated there by a high-temperature volatilization process either from volcanoes or in an original high-temperature atmosphere of the earth . It is concluded that the removal of these elements from the outer parts of the earth occurred through solution in water at low or moderate temperatures ( ~ 100°C or less), since they are soluble and other elements are not. Iodine should belong to this group, but its position is uncertain because of doubtful analytical data. Sulphur may belong in some degree with the volatiles, i.e. carbon as methane or carbon dioxide, nitrogen as ammonia or molecular nitrogen, and water. It is shown that the low abundances of mercury and arsenic in the sediments are inconsistent with a temperature of formation of the earth’s surface regions higher than a few hundred degrees centigrade. The presence of appreciable quantities of nitrogen in the igneous rocks indicates that this element was present in condensed phases during the earth ’s formation, and a survey of the conditions of stability of such compounds indicates temperatures of about 200°C or less. It has not been possible to decide whether liquid water was present on the primitive earth .