Introducing DDT, Whiskey from Sawdust, Robots

This episode is from the WNYC archives. It may contain language which is no longer politically or socially appropriate.

"Science can rid the country of mosquitoes thanks to DDT!" "Cheap, thorough and quick!" Does not hurt birds or fish, only insects. George Bones describes how the DDT is dissolved into oil, then fed into a fog machine, which can blanket the countryside and end diseases carried by mosquitoes and black flies.

Whiskey from saw dust! Cheaper, and with little difference in taste, this method would save grain for the world's starving people.

Plutonium is a million times rarer than radium in nature - nature did not provide enough plutonium to create atomic bombs.

A "mechanical professor" now being used to grade test papers, this "robot" makes almost no mistakes.

Scientists may find cure for the "blind staggers," an disease common in livestock in the West, caused by high levels of selenium.

Crude oil into gasoline! New catalyst called Silica-Magnesium can be used on heavy crude oil into gasoline.

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 69766
Municipal archives id: LT792