Dec 1975 RAIN Page 23 The Prospect of Alchemy The Migma Principle of controlled nuclear fusion turns atoms of one element, hydrogen, into those of another, helium. This is, in effect, the first man-made ordered transformation of one substance into another, and it opens up the prospect that science has at last stumbled upon the long sought-after Philosopher's Stone, the imagi.nary rock or chemical believed to give alchemists the power to transmute baser metals into gold. We asked Dr. Maglich to comment on this possibility. Some people have proposed that migma fusion can be used for the purposes of alchemy-that is, to bring about the transmutation of elements. That's correct, of course. There is no machine today in which you can put one element and out will come another element. Migma will be the first device of this type. In fact, it will be what we call a nuclear isotope production plant. Of course, you cannot do everything in it, but you will be able to produce most of the isotopes, stable or unstable, one way or another. It will be a completely new technology. I don't want to go on record as saying that you can make gold with migma, but I can say that it is a· very good general idea. The migmacell opens a new type of nuclear physics, but, being only limited and mortal human beings, we must concentrate only on certain goals, and our goal is just to produce a power source. Then that will open a whole new technology. ~ We did not think of making a machine to synthesize elements. ~ There are only 26 working hours in a day for me, and the rest of the time I sleep. No, seriously, there are masses of ideas ] totally unexplored. (Harper's Weekly, Oct. 6, 1975) SUBSCRIBE TO RAIN HOW TO KNOW HOW MUCH TO PAY FOR YOUR SUBSCRIPTION If you are an institution, the institutional rate is $10/year. This includes 3 copies every month, which can be put to good use by most institutions. If you don't send us payment with your order, you are an institution and the above paragraph applies. If you don't fit into institution (above) or foreign (below), you're probably an individual. You pay $5/year and get one copy per month. If you live in Canada or Mexico, it costs us $1.62 extra in postage to send you RAIN for a year. Please add that to the regular rate from above. If you live in Europe, Asia, Africa or South America, it costs the following amounts beyond regular rate, take your pick: $1.62/year for slow surface mail (about 2 months) $5 .22/year for first class (about 5 weeks) $14.42/year for air mail (about 1 week) Name ________________________________ D Individual D Institution Address------------ ------ ------------- Occupations? The Post Office won't deliver magazines without zip codes. D New subscription, money enclosed D Change of address Interests/Concerns ... D Canada/Mexico D Other foreign See note above for rates 0 CHECK ENCLOSED The institutional rate may be used by individuals, but we hope institutions will use only the special $10.00 rate.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz