The Google Life trove documents a thousand encounters between scientists and photographers.

There's an oft-retold story-- it seems to have first seen print with John J. McPhaul in his 1962 book Deadlines and Monkeyshines: the Fabled World of Chicago Journalism (thanks again, Google!) -- about a photographer named Sam. He was assigned to cover a reunion of scientists who first "split the atom" at the University of Chicago, on the tenth anniversary of the first nuclear chain reaction.

Every day, journalists are asked to report on subjects with which they have only a glancing familiarity. Sam was no expert on science, but he was an old hand at composing newspaper photos.

He gathered Enrico Fermi, Arthur H. Compton, Vannevar Bush, and the other scientists.

"I'm thinking of getting three photos," Sam told them.

"First, you guys putting the atom in the machine. Then, splitting the atom. Finally, all of you standing around looking at the pieces."

( In the spirit of Sam... )

Back in the days of Iron Men and Wooden Reactors, William Mansfield Adams, then a geophysicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, came up with an idea to explore deep beneath the Earth.

To those interested in constructing probes to penetrate the ice of Europa's surface and investigate the (hypothetical) global ocean beneath, I recommend a study of the Meltmobile. (My word, not Adams's.)

To quote Time's 1964 article on the idea, which is where I heard about it:

Adams' crust piercer, which he patented and assigned to the AEC, is a high-temperature nuclear reactor designed to melt its way into rock. The reactor is 2 ft. to 3 ft. in diameter, and its active material (uranium oxide) is enclosed in a cylinder of beryllium oxide, which serves as a heat insulator. The lower point, mostly tungsten, is heavy, while the upper point, mostly beryllium, is light.

Puddle of Lava. The "Needle Reactor," as Adams calls it, will be placed in a shallow shaft before its nuclear reactor is allowed to go critical. Quickly the temperature will rise to about 1,100° C. (2,012° F.), which is hot enough to melt most rock. Because of the insulation around the midsection, most of the heat will flow downward; soon the lower point will be surrounded by a puddle of lava. The needle reactor will gradually drop into this plastic stuff, and the lava will close over it and solidify.
( Read more... )
Some years ago, I kicked this around in some science newsgroups on Usenet. Unfortunately, I garbled Dr. Adams's middle name at the time. I apologize.

Anybody want to take the plunge?