Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, Issue 45 — page 146: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION becomes more abundant, we can conveniently refer to “99ous and 99ic oxides’ and so on.”” Though Mr. Williams puts this suggestion forward lightheartedly, we wonder whether there is more in it. Since the periodic classifica- tion is so fundamental a part © of chemistry, it might well aid in an understanding of that subject if elements were re- ferred to by their periodic position rather than by some arbitrary fancy name. This would tend to bring chemistry into line with the biological sciences, where the name itself carries intrinsic meaning. ‘Sodium’ means nothing until you have been told what it is. But “11” would mean a great deal to anyone who had acquaintance with the principles of periodic classification. However, such a revolution in chemical no- menclature would hardly be accepted by the prejudiced old-timers in the field—of which there are many! Though Switzerland is often regarded by the ignorant as a kind of cultural backwater, taking no part in the conveyor- belt slaughters that rock the rest of the world from time to time, recent rocket develop- ments in that country indicate that she is very much alive to the way the world is going, and that she will follow it as far as she thinks necessary for her own preservation. To this end Swiss scientists—always of high calibre—are reported to have developed a £5,000 rocket that will soar upwards to twelve miles with such preci- sion that it will destroy any plane within a radius of fifteen miles from its base. Tests with radio-controlled, unmanned aircraft are said to have proved most satisfactory. Thus, Switz- erland will keep her skies clean in the future, just as she has kept her land clean in the past. By utilising science. The right kind of attitude was expressed by the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Nehru, a while back when he opened the Central Laboratories for Scientific and Industrial Re- search at Hyderabad. Said Mr. Nehru: “Science has changed the whole world, and we in India must accept that. Scientists and engineers are far more important than adminis- trators.”” Many will agree with him, and some will wish that science and administration were more often combined in the same man. Then scientific rule would replace emotional misleading. 145 comiclooks.conn