50 Years Ago

'Detection in Denmark of the Sinkiang nuclear detonation' — Measurements of fission products in air at ground level are made regularly in Copenhagen using a high-volume air sampler and a 100-channel γ-spectrometer. A filter exposed during the period October 23–26, 1964, gave the first reliable indication of new fission-products by the appearance of the 1,596-keV line of lanthanum-140. The sample was a compressed filter containing dust from about 150,000 m3 air ... The concentration of lanthanum-140 was estimated as 5 × 10−5 pc./m3. Filters sampled on October 28 and October 30 show concentrations which are approximately 10 and 100 times greater ... This seems to prove that debris from the Sinkiang explosion reached Copenhagen by transportation in the upper troposphere in less than 10 days. Later measurements on a rain sample from October 23 finally proved that the transportation time did not exceed 7 days.

From Nature 27 March 1965

100 Years Ago

An allusion to musical sands may be found in one of the tales from the “Arabian Nights”—“The Story of the Two Sisters who were jealous of their Younger Sister.” Prince Bahman, who was journeying in search of rarities and treasures, reaches the foot of a mountain, and while ascending “was assailed with the most hideous sounds,” while others who followed him heard “groans, shouts, and all sorts of insulting epithets.” One of the wonders they were in search of was the “Singing Tree,” which “commenced to issue a series of exquisite strains of music” as soon as the Princess Parizadé saw it.

From Nature 25 March 1915 Footnote 1