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VOL. CXII, NO. 12; MARCH 20, 1915 (

2 )

1970

A Lunar

“Tablespoonful”

“In the broad, flat lunar maria, or

‘seas’ (such as Mare Tranquillitatis,

the site of the Apollo 11 manned

landing), the depths of craters that

have reached bedrock indicate

a regolith thickness of from five

to 10 meters. Thus the Apollo  11

astronauts Neil  A. Armstrong and

Edwin  E. Aldrin, Jr., did not come

within several meters of solid rock

at Tranquillity Base, and the geol-

ogy picks they had brought along

for the purpose of chipping speci-

mens off outcrops were superfluous.

They stood and walked on top of

the regolith, and the lunar sample

they returned was collected, with

scoop and tongs, from this layer of

rock debris. Our own group at the

Smithsonian Institution Astrophys-

ical Observatory has been working

with 16 grams (about a tablespoon-

ful) of the soil. —John  A. Wood”

1920

The Mango

Bears Fruit

“The U.S. Department of Agricul-

ture has secured through its agri-

cultural explorers and by exchange

with the British East Indian depart-

ments of agriculture one of the

largest collection of mango varieties

in the world, and now has in fruit,

at its plant introduction station at

Miami, Fla., about 20 varieties. It

is said that these selected varieties

strikingly belie the

American public schools. A pro-

gram of group tests has been

worked out which will make it pos-

sible to conduct wholesale surveys

of schools annually, or even semi-

annually, so that grade classifica-

tion and individual educational

treatment can be adjusted with

desirable frequency.”

1870

Of Toadstools

and Whales

“It is a simple matter of fact and

of every day observation that all

forms of animal work are the result

of the reception and assimilation

of a few cubic feet of oxygen, a few

ounces of water, of starch, of fat,

and of flesh. In a chemical point

of view man may be defined to be

something of this sort. That great

authority, Professor [Thomas] Hux-

ley, has lately been discussing what

he calls ‘protoplasm, or ‘the physi-

cal basis of life.’ He seeks for that

community of faculty which exists

between the mossy, rock-incrusted

lichen, and the painter or botanist

that studies it. Professor Huxley

has not proved, and it is impossible

for him to prove, that these proto-

plasms may not have essential

points of difference. Physiologists

cannot yet tell us how it is that ‘of

four cells absolutely identical in

organic structure and composition,

one will grow into Socrates, another

into a toadstool, one into a  cock-

chafer, another into a whale.’ ”

many unkind things that have

been said about the mango. Some

of them have hardly more fiber

in them than a freestone peach,

and can be cut open lengthwise

and eaten as easily with a spoon

as a cantaloupe.”

Schools and the Army

“The National Research Council

announces that the mental tests

which were used with striking suc-

cess in the Army during the war

are to be used on a large scale in

EPIC TALE S

Space Exploration

Planets and stars are as much a product of “nature’s laboratory” as Homo sapiens. And while

our species examines the information gleaned from the universe that surrounds us, we also

have an emotional sense of wonder at revealing the secrets of nature and our place within it.

(This magazine may tend to leave emotion to neuroscience, as our focus is on scientific data—but we also

publish poetry.) From the invention of the first telescope in 1608 to the discovery of the Milky Way galaxy’s

place in Laniakea—a great river of galaxies streaming toward a giant hidden gravity source—our explora-

tion of the universe so far follows a trend: we explore with instruments and with our imaginations. And

one day we will go our-

selves, leaving our foot-

prints across the universe.

— D.S.

1970

1920

1870

1915: This cover imagined what the surface of Saturn’s moon

Titan would look like. Ninety years later the Huygens probe touched

down on Titan and sent back images of the actual landscape.

1970: Footprint of one of the Apollo 11

astronauts on the moon reveals the

consistency of the lunar surface but

also serves as a metaphor for human

exploration of the galaxy.

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