50 years ago

The largest and heaviest satellite so far placed in orbit by the United States was launched in a south-easterly direction from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 23.02 u.t. on December 18. The complete satellite weighs some 8,500 lb., of which only a small proportion, about 150 lb., is pay-load. The remainder of the object is the empty shell of the Atlas missile which performed the launching, about 80 ft. long and 10 ft. in diameter. The main purpose of the satellite is to act as a radio relay station, storing and re-transmitting, on frequencies of 132.45 and 139.905 Mc./s., messages sent to it from the ground. It also carries telemetry transmitters operating on 107.97 and 107.94 Mc./s. The satellite is the first to be successfully launched since July 1958, and is designated 1958 ζ.

From Nature 3 January 1959.

100 years ago

Fads and Feeding. By Dr. C. Stanford Read — This is an admirably clear, well reasoned, and sensible little book. One can only hope that it may be widely read and may do something to counteract the ridiculous views on diet which are the result of the cogitation of that dangerous class of people who, having a little knowledge, supply the remainder from their own imagination. In spite of the importance of a suitable diet for health, there is perhaps no other subject which breeds so many fads ... The key-word of Dr. Read's book is moderation; moderation in meat-eating, in tea-drinking, in the use of alcoholic drinks and the like. He is also moderate in the way he deals with the faddists, the vegetarians, the uric-acid-free dietists, the teetotalers, and the rest. Perhaps this method of dealing with them is the most effectual with the public, who, taken as a whole, are moderate, and temperate too.

Nature 31 December 1908.