An instrument is under development by Wald at the University of Pittsburgh to automatically analyze cytogenetic material and, thus, extend cytogenetic methodology both for research and as a biological monitoring procedure, using automatic electronic scanning and computer analysis of chromosomes. Chromosomal aberrations can thus be monitored under unusual and abnormal conditions such as weightlessness and radiation, since chromosomes are very sensitive to stress situations. In this device a sample will be prepared and automatically inserted under a microscope lens. The device will then scan, identify, and photograph on 35-mm film a predetermined number of mitotic cells and process the film. The data will be recorded under the direct control of a digital computer. The computer will perform a detailed quantitative analysis of the pictorial data.
Significant effort has been expended in the development of instrumentation for measuring and recording electrophysiological information. One such instrument, developed by the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pa., is a temperature-sensing microprobe. This microprobe is an implantable and remote broadcasting instrument. These developments are associated, in part, with training programs so that competent individuals may be trained not only in electronics but also in the biological uses of the devices they construct.
A project of interest, conducted at the Stanford Research Institute, is the investigation of the uses of an extremely sensitive method for measuring magnetic susceptibility having the possibility of detecting macroscopic quantum effects in macromolecules of biological interest. Good progress has been made in the first 15 months of a project devoted to the development and initial use of equipment specifically designed for this purpose. A new superconducting circuit, together with superconducting magnetic shields, has been constructed. This apparatus can measure the magnetic susceptibility of small organic samples at temperatures between 1° and 300° K in fields up to 40 000 gauss. It can detect flux changes of 107 gauss-cm2, which is equivalent to detecting a change in specific susceptibility of 1 in 109 in a 100-mg sample under an applied field of 10 000 gauss.
Several hundred preliminary measurements were made on samples of coronene. The most reliable of these were in agreement with published values of the magnetic susceptibility of coronene. Experience during these measurements led to changes which have resulted in an apparatus well suited to the measurements on macromolecules. An improved version of the superconducting circuit now available shows promise of a further improvement in sensitivity by a factor of more than a thousand ([ref.166]).
Living organisms possess many unique processes and systems which are complex and poorly understood. The new theoretical approaches, combined with laboratory studies, are expected to result in advances which will expand both our scientific and technological horizons.
[chapter 6]
Flight Programs
BALLOONS
Biological and medical experiments carried out on balloon flights, both manned and unmanned, antedate the establishment of NASA. Aside from the early use of balloons in flights that could be called simply flight-survival studies, balloons have made important contributions to our present knowledge of the effects of cosmic radiation and to various aspects of space travel.
The achievements of the Strato-Lab and Man High series by the U.S. Navy and Air Force include a wealth of information on balloon travel and on the survival of man at altitudes close to and above 100 000 feet. Generally, balloon launches of animals, which reached a maximum in 1953 when 23 balloons were released, have established the feasibility of a program of extended manned balloon flights to high altitudes.