50, 100 and 150 Years Ago; February 2004; Scientific American Magazine; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

RED FEAR - "The Fort Monmouth spy story fizzled out last month. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy concluded a series of public hearings, which he had said would 'show that there was espionage' in the Fort Monmouth radar laboratory. His parade of witnesses has failed to develop any testimony on spying. Of some 30 Signal Corps scientists suspended by the Army as a result of the McCarthy investigation, none was accused of espionage. The New York Herald Tribune writer Walter Millis reported in his column: 'This really vital and sensitive military installation has been wrecked - more thoroughly than any Soviet saboteur could have dreamed of doing it...[through] the processes of witch-hunting, sheer bigotry, cowardice, race prejudice and sheer incompetence.'"

RABBIT PLAGUE - "It is with diametrically opposite feelings that different parts of the world now look upon the two-edged phenomenon which is the subject of this article - the deadly infectious disease of rabbits called myxomatosis. Introduced deliberately in Australia three years ago, it has swept rapidly over immense areas, causing great epizootics among rabbits. In Australia the disease is hailed as a measure of salvation which is ridding the continent of its major pest; in Europe, where it broke out in 1952, it is viewed as a malevolent killer which threatens to wipe out a favorite food, game, pet and laboratory animal. To check the disease in Europe, investigators are searching for a vaccine against the myxoma virus."