Science: Temperature

By passing electric welding arcs through gases at high pressure, scientists have produced temperatures of 11,000° F., roughly the surface temperature of the sun. By alternately magnetizing and demagnetizing certain precooled salts, scientists have reached temperatures only a tiny fraction above absolute zero, −459.72° F. But hundreds of scientists assembled for a science congress in Canberra, Australia's capital, last week could do precisely nothing to alter a summer temperature of 108° in the shade.

Delegates wore linen suits, shorts, sandals and open shirts to a garden party at Parliament House—which reporters called...

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