50 Years Ago

Apollo 10 has demonstrated the technical virtuosity of NASA and its works. It is hard now to remember that it is merely two years since an unlucky fire cost the lives of three astronauts at Cape Kennedy. Then it seemed as if the dream of getting to the Moon before the end of the sixties would be broken. Now, as the numbers tick by towards eleven, the meticulous care with which the whole enterprise has been conducted becomes increasingly apparent. The Apollo programme seems to be bursting with a host of technological sagas … It is true that the United States is hoping that there will flow from this accumulation of expertise a further refinement of the skill … which has made it the inventive place it is already … But the more lasting achievement is the way in which the anticipation of technical problems has created a sense of mastery of machines … The old cliché of the returning hero that it is the team which deserves the honours has become a truism.

From Nature 31 May 1969

100 Years Ago

As the result of an executive order issued by President Wilson … the temporary arrangement inaugurated two years previously has acquired permanence as the National Research Council of the United States. The history of this organisation is instructive in showing that in time of national stress the Governmental authorities appreciate the necessity for active co-operation from scientific bodies or individuals who have in peace conditions received but little recognition or support … Thus it is that the … direction of research work in the United States has become vested in a body of men whose … work during the war … has shown that they are competent to handle the great problems which go with peace and reconstruction.

From Nature 29 May 1919