Atomic humor

The chemist John Dalton (of atomic theory fame) was color-blind. He thought it probable that the vitreous humor of his eyes (the fluid that fills the eyeball behind the lens) was tinted blue, unlike the colorless fluid of normal eyes. He proposed that after his death, his eyes should be dissected and the color of the vitreous humor determined. His wish was honored. The day after Dalton s death in July 1844, Joseph Ransome dissected his eyes and found the vitreous humor to be perfectly colorless. Ransome, like many scientists, was reluctant to throw samples away. He placed Dalton s eyes in ajar of preservative (Fig. 1), where they stayed for a century and a half. 

The first explicit use of atomic number is attributed to John Newlands, who arranged his 1864 table of elements by the number of the element in the order of their equivalents using Cannizzaro s system. At the time, Professor George Carey Foster humorously enquired of Mr. Newlands whether he had ever examined the elements according to the order of their initial letters. ... 

Cover of Science Comics 1 (Humor, January 1946)- The Bomb That Won the War," the lead story of this issue, offers a simplified version of atomic history and an optimistic forecast for atomic... 

Since tales of potential atomic disaster drew heavily from biblical archetypes regarding the end of time, they resonated on a multitude of levels. Indeed, from 1945 to the present day, atomic-themed comic book adventures have never lost their appeal. In his lengthy list, Robert Beerbohm counted over 180 such tales from 1953 to 1989. From Donald Duck to the Gumps, from the Flash to Green Lantern, from Superman to Wonder Woman, it would be hard to find a cartoon character who did not confront nuclear themes. The following examples must serve as representative of a story genre that still continues, albeit in more subdued form since the end of the Cold War in 1989-90. Whether one looks at humorous or serious stories, the atomic theme is ever present. 

Donald Duck s Atom Bomb (1947), Cheerios Giveaway, Walt Disney Corporation. "Atomic Tot, All Humor Comics 2 (Summer 1946) (Comic Favorites). 

Based on the data available in 1947 the neutron absorption cross-section for zirconium was no better than stainless steel. Iron, the principal element in stainless steel, had a microscopic cross-section of 2.55 b (Lamarsh and Baratta, 2001). The bam had been adopted by early physicists as a measure of area for the incredibly small values at the atomic levels. Each bam represented 10" cm. In a rare show of humor, the term bam arose from the expression of hitting the broad side of a bam. Zirconium had been found to have a cross-section nearly identical to iron, 2.5 b, thus seeming to offer little advantage. 

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