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However, a meeting between the U. The meeting established a small group to maintain liaison and I would guess that a second meeting might well occur in the next few years. Informal exchange of SETI ideas and studies constantly go on through normal scientific channels, particularly at international meetings. Billingham: It is not different.

It is the same. Billingham: He should perhaps reflect on the fact that it is an activity which is keeping America in the forefront of new ventures in science and exploration, which is something that very much enhances the image of the United States throughout the world. This is something that is seldom realized. If a contact should be made, there will be the achievement of it having been made by American scientists.

There may be things we can learn from other civilizations which could be of great benefit to American taxpayers and indeed to anyone else. Billingham: I will mention one and leave the rest to the imagination. The important thing to point out first is that the other civilization is likely to be very much older and therefore more advanced in its culture in general.

One thing of some importance is that we will know for the first time that it is possible for a civilization to pass through the sort of troubles that we are experiencing at our present stage of evolution, and live perhaps millions of years into the future under what must be conditions of some stability. This would perhaps give many people particularly the pessimists , a more positive and hopeful outlook with regard to our own prospects as a civilization. It is probably up to each one of us to imagine other benefits which might result from the detection of a signal, since all thoughts in this direction can only be speculation.

Billingham: Having been at Ames in the Life Sciences Directorate since , I have been constantly exposed to the exciting research being carried out there in exobiology. In I read Shklovsky and Sagan's book on intelligent life in the universe and it occurred to me that one crucial question had not been asked. The question was, if one wanted to conduct a serious and thorough search for evidence of the existence of intelligent life outside the earth, how would it be done?

John Billingham was born in in Worcester, England. He received his M. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. There he served as Chief of the Environmental Physiology Branch. Since Dr. He holds two patents related to temperature-controlled pilot garments. A Strange Radiation from Above By: John Kraus [Article in magazine started on page 20] The linden and willow-lined meadow near Aussig in northern Bohemia had been active since the earliest light of morning.

Nearby the river Elbe flowed northward to the Erz mountains whose azure peaks shimmered in the distance against a cloudless sky. Now a few hours after dawn a huge orange and black balloon towered majestically above the meadow's grassy expanse, the low slanting rays of the sun glinting off its rounded dome. Nudged by an almost imperceptible breeze, the big bag tugged impatiently on its ropes.

Members of the Austrian Aeroclub moved with a well-practiced efficiency making final preparations for its ascension but one could detect a feeling of excitement in the air for this was no ordinary flight. Hess, 29, taught physics at an academy of veterinary medicine in Vienna. He was already aboard checking his equipment. The flight meteorologist, Ernst Wolf, was also in the rope-festooned basket adjusting his barometer. Inflation was complete and the Aeroclub members disconnected hoses from hydrogen tanks on some wagons nearby.

Captain Wolfgang Hoffory, the pilot, walked around the outside of the basket inspecting the sand-filled ballast bags hanging from its perimeter. Shouting final orders to the ground crew he swung effortlessly aboard.

He was a veteran of many ascensions and had, in fact, piloted Dr. Hess on a number of flights during the previous months. But none went as high as he hoped to rise today. For many years scientists had puzzled over the fact that an electroscope gradually lost its charge even though it was carefully insulated. Electroscopes had come into wide use after the discovery of radioactivity by Antoine Becquerel of France in A typical electroscope consists of two leaves of gold foil suspended from an insulated electrode or metal rod in a metal container with glass window.

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When given an electric charge, as from a rubber comb rubbed with a flannel cloth, the leaves spring apart due to the repulsion of their like charges. Radiation from radioactive material brought near the electroscope penetrates the container producing ions or charged particles in the air inside which discharges the leaves and causes them to drop. What the scientists had noted was that even in the absence of any known radioactive material, the leaves would gradually drop, suggesting some unknown radiation.

It was suspected, and later confirmed, that the radiation came at least in part from the weak radioactivity of substances present near the surface of the earth. By measuring the rate at which the leaves collapse one can determine the strength of the ionizing radiation.

If the pressure of the air in the container enclosing two leaves is increased, the electroscope becomes more sensitive and these so-called ionization chambers were carried to the top of the Eiffel tower and aloft in balloons to determine if the radiation decreased with height above the ground but the results were inconclusive. Victor Hess had wondered if the unknown radiation might come from outside the earth, perhaps from the sun.

With support from the Royal Vienna Academy of Science, he had embarked on a series of balloon ascensions at night, during the day and even one during an eclipse of the sun. From these he concluded that the sun was not the source of the mysterious ionizing radiation. The flight today was the seventh in a series he had begun in April, , and his aim today was to go much higher than he had before. The previous ascensions indicated that there was a small decrease in ionization going from the ground to heights of a few hundred meters due apparently to a reduced effect of the earth's radioactivity.

However, with further increase in height up to meters the readings did not seem to change. Soon clouds appeared ahead. They were scattered, puffy, white cumulus clouds, all at the same altitude. Near Peterswalde the balloonists crossed into Saxony and smoke floating up lazily from the factories of Dresden appeared off to the west. An hour after lift-off they were at meters and during the next two hours they rose to meters. The sun climbing in the east warmed the balloon increasing its lift so Captain Hoffory could conserve on the amount of sand ballast he had to release.

At they attained meters, their maximum altitude, and Captain Hoffory pulled a valve to release some gas and start their gradual descent. Above them at about meters, there was now a thin filmy layer of strato-cirrus clouds through which the sun shone brightly.

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Victor Hess had been busy from before lift off with his apparatus consisting of three ionization chambers and associated equipment. Each chamber was made of an air-tight, thick-walled metal cylinder the size of a two liter can with a small glass window for observing the electroscope leaves with the aid of a microscope.

Hess took readings on all three instruments in rotation as the cold thin air of the high altitudes penetrated his clothing. He carefully recorded these values along with the barometric pressure readings, which indicated the altitude, as called out by Ernst Wolf.

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On chamber number 2, which was rather typical of the three instruments, the ionization at the ground was about 12 units. At an altitude of meters it dropped to 10 but at meters the reading was up again to At meters the ionization level had climbed to 15 and most startingly at meters it rose to 27 units or more than twice its value at the ground! The descent was gradual, taking another two hours. On the way down Victor Hess continued to take readings which confirmed the ones he obtained on the ascent.

They had been aloft six hours, traveled kilometers and reached a maximum altitude of meters. But then there was no doubt. The increase with altitude demonstrated that it must be caused from above. The atmosphere was like an absorbing blanket. The higher one rose through it the stronger the radiation from above became.

In his report published later that year in the Physikalisches Zeitschrift he stated, "The results of the observations indicate that rays of very great penetrating power are entering our atmosphere from above. Strange radiations penetrating the earth's atmosphere from above now seemed of little consequence and further balloon measurements would have to wait.

Eventually Hess' results gained acceptance and the radiations he had discovered coming from beyond the earth were named cosmic rays. Perhaps, it was thought, they might be electromagnetic waves like x-rays, only of a more penetrating kind. Subsequently, however, they were shown to be material particles and not waves: protons hydrogen atom nuclei and nuclei of heavier atoms to at least uranium, often with enormous energy and penetrating power, which bombard the earth relentlessly.

In , Victor Hess received the Nobel prize for his discovery of cosmic rays. The origin of cosmic rays is uncertain but it is presumed that many are generated during violent events, such as stellar explosions within our galaxy. It is entirely possible that a proton striking the earth today was shot out from the Crab nebula, the exploded star of A. In its long journey from the nebula, it has traveled at nearly the speed of light for thousands of years.

Beacon Lights of History, Volume 5: The Middle Ages

Magnetic fields encountered along its way have deviated its path from a straight line, like cross-winds buffet a ship off course, so its direction on reaching the earth is not that of the Crab nebula. But this tiny particle is a messenger from a distant part of our galaxy with perhaps a fascinating tale to tell if it could. Note: The term radioactivity came into use long before the word "radio" was coined.

Radioactivity implies that a substance such as radium emits or radiates particles or very short electromagnetic waves called gamma rays. It does not mean that the substance emits radio waves which are very long wavelength electromagnetic waves. However, the similarity of the words leaves them open to confusion. Papagiannis [Article in magazine started on page 24] It was a happy moment, when on the morning of August 15, , I stepped to the podium to welcome on behalf of the International Organizing Committee all the participants to our joint session.

The large auditorium was full, creating a gratifying feeling after nearly two years of letter writing, telephone calls and telegrams to places all around the world. In my brief welcoming address, I said, "It is an important new step and a unique opportunity to hold a meeting on Life in the Universe during the General Assembly of the IAU when many of the best scientists in this field from around the world are gathered under the same roof. Our subject is a sensitive one that can easily lead to misunderstandings.

It is our responsibility, therefore, to provide sensible leadership and to show that we can proceed in a scientific manner, without exaggerations and without premature headlines, toward the solution of this fundamental problem. The Unions purpose is to facilitate the exchange of scientific information and to foster international cooperation in astronomical activities. The Union is organized into about 50 commissions, each concerned with a specific area of astronomy. Every three years the Union holds a General Assembly at which all members and commissions may participate.