75 years ago this mid-September 'the most valuable cargo ever' landed in Halifax in exchange for 50 clapped out US destroyers

This link to an earlier blog post has all the details....

Fifty clapped out Four Stacker American destroyers, exchanged in the peacetime tourist ship-oriented 'neutral' end of Halifax harbour, for Britain's most valuable military secret : basically a tin whistle bent in the shape of a circle, no bigger than a man's hand., described by Vannevar Bush's official historian as 'the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores'.

But the cavity magnetron, still the heart of your $50 microwave, changed radar from a set of 300 ft tall masts on a British seaside hill , very big and very inaccurate, to something small enough to fit inside an anti-aircraft shell, very small and very accurate.

It is worth remembering that the Allies spent far far more on radar than they ever did on the A-Bomb, and most scientists felt that radar, not the atomic bomb, actually won the war.

The magnetron's impact was even more important politically than technologically, because before the US military brass saw it, they thought Britain was too bankrupt in technology to be worth backing in the fight against Germany.

That little bent tin flute, like all really genius things in life being dead simple in concept, totally changed their point of view....

HALIFAX: researching the under-researched 75% of the world's surface ....

   HALIFAX - The University of  Calgary Posse now occupying Ottawa appears mystified as to why tiny Halifax has any research facilities at all - let alone as much as it currently does have.
   "What on God's green Earth can Halifax do in the way of research that couldn't be done better,quicker and cheaper in Calgary or Edmonton's fine facilities " is their plaint.

   Well the port of Halifax could start by pointing out how well equipped it is - by nature, not by man - to investigate the woefully under-researched 75% of the blue Earth's surface that is NOT bone-dry prairie soil but rather is wet ocean, lake, river and ice cap.
   This year 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of THE BEDFORD INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY, much better known as simply BIO and it is here in Halifax for that very simple reason.
   Halifax has long considered itself and advertised itself as the Gateway into Canada, a mere whistle stop on the road to somewhere else more important - like the Golden West.
  But it could - it should - tout its considerable charms as the gateway out - out into the oceans of the world.
  The problem with most Albertans, like most Afghans, is that they are physically and mentally land-locked and simply don't get out as much as they should.
   Whatever the faults of  the Atlantic Canadians living in five out of ten of Canada's provinces - and they are many - being provincially minded isn't one of them.
   Is there ANY science news to review in Atlantic Canada ?
    You betcha ....

NORMA SALAH, first Nova Scotian saved from death by PENICILLIN

67 years ago on July 24th 1944, the Halifax Chronicle Herald newspaper reported that Norma Salah had been snatched from the jaws of death by the new miracle drug PENICILLIN, which had just been released (in limited amounts for only the gravest cases) to  Canadian civilian hospitals, starting on the 12th of that same month.

   Norma was probably the first, or among the very first Nova Scotians, to have their lives saved by the world's most beloved medicine.
  Today's newspapers here mention the tragic death - from stabbing - of  a Norma Salah ,age 77.

   I haven't confirmed it, but it seems at least highly probable, that she is that same little girl from all those years ago.
   If so, what a sad ending to such a hopeful start in life....