I found an article that said "The microwave was invented to heat hamsters humanely in 1950s experiments." And I thought, no it wasn't. ...was it?
Pull down the description for thorough references and credits.
Thanks to James Lovelock for his time! His latest book is Novacene: [ Ссылка ] [that is, of course, an Amazon affiliate link]
Filmed safely: [ Ссылка ] - thanks to jabs, PCR tests, isolation and distancing.
I did consider whether to do an extended interview with Dr Lovelock, but the Science Museum has already done far better than I ever could:
On cyborgs, asteroids and Gaia theory: [ Ссылка ]
On his greatest epiphany: [ Ссылка ]
An extended 90-minute interview from the Lovelock Centenary Conference: [ Ссылка ]
REFERENCES:
HISTORY OF THE MICROWAVE:
I Burrell, in the Independent, 1997: "Your money, or the cat gets microwaved": [ Ссылка ]
M Blitz, "The Amazing True Story of How the Microwave Was Invented by Accident": [ Ссылка ]
E Schliephake, "Ultra-short waves in medicine" in Short Wave Craft, Vol. 3, No. 11, March 1933, p. 646 [PDF]: [ Ссылка ]
E Ackerman, "A Brief History of the Microwave Oven", IEEE Spectrum: [ Ссылка ]
Radarange photo from Acroterion: [ Ссылка ] - image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, [ Ссылка ]
James Lovelock in 1962: Photo by Donald Uhrbrock/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images
PAPERS FROM NIMR:
A Smith, J Lovelock, A Parkes, 1954: Resuscitation of Hamsters after Supercooling or Partial Crystallization at Body Temperatures Below 0° C.. Nature 173, 1136–1137. [ Ссылка ]
R K Andjus, J E Lovelock, 1955: Reanimation of rats from body temperatures between 0 and 1° C by microwave diathermy. The Journal of Physiology, 128. [ Ссылка ]
Lovelock, J E, Smith A U, 1959, Heat transfer from and to animals in experimental hypothermia and freezing. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 80: 487-499. [ Ссылка ]
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