Ernest Sternglass, physicist whose research helped world see 1st moon walk, dies at 91

[bananas]

Source: Associated Press

Physicist Ernest Sternglass, whose research helped make it possible for the world to see the first moon walk, has died at age 91 of heart failure.

His research helped lead to a sensitive television camera tube that captured low-light lunar action during the 1969 moon landing and U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong's historic first steps.

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Sternglass died Feb. 12 in Ithaca, New York, Cornell said. He was born in 1923 and fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938.

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He was among the early scientists concerned with the health effects of atomic bomb testing. In 1963, he presented testimony to the Senate Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty hearing comparing atmospheric bomb testing with an unsafe level of X-ray exposure.

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Read more: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/292420481.html

[bananas]

1. He worked on medical imaging for many years at the Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

http://www.ithacajournal.com/story/news/local/2015/02/18/cornell-physicist-sternglass-dies/23622545/

Cornell physicist had link to first moon walk
News service reports 1:59 p.m. EST February 18, 2015

ITHACA – A physicist whose career was highlighted by research that helped capture moving images of the first moon walk has died. Ernest Sternglass was 91.

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He worked on medical imaging for many years at the Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

His research led to safer X-ray equipment using digital imaging, which brings out greater detail than is possible with film, using computer image processing, according to Cornell. These systems are now used by nearly every doctor and hospital, according to Cornell.

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The Cornell University Library maintains a collection of Sternglass’ papers and correspondence, which are available for research: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM06842.html

[bananas]

2. Death of Dr. Ernest Sternglass - by Joseph Mangano

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/16/18768620.php

Death of Dr. Ernest Sternglass
by Joseph Mangano ( odiejoe at aol.com )
Monday Feb 16th, 2015 9:17 PM

Dr. Ernest Sternglass died on February 12 at age 91. Dr. Sternglass was author of Secret Fallout:From Hiroshima to Three Mile Island. Dr. Sternglass was a pioneer in pointing out the links between radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons and commercial reactors and the development of cancer and other health problems.

Dear Friends:

I'm sorry to convey the news that Ernest Sternglass died yesterday in Ithaca NY, age 91.

I'm attaching an obituary that has been prepared on his prolific life, and urge you to read it. I also urge those of you who operate web sites, or participate in social media, to circulate this. (It is already on the Radiation and Public Health Project facebook account - if we're not friends with you yet, we'd like to be).

Ernest had a remarkable life. Long before his radiation work, he escaped the Nazi terrors of his native Berlin late in 1938 to enter the U.S. His academic work at Cornell - bachelor's, master's, and doctorate - was punctuated by correspondence with Albert Einstein, who invited him to visit his Princeton home, where they spoke about some of Ernest's theories.

His work with Westinghouse included 13 patents, and he co-developed the cameras that took photos from the moon of the first moon landing, Apollo 11, in 1969. He later was a professor of physics and public health at the University of Pittsburgh.

In August 1963, he testified to the U.S. Senate in favor of the Partial Test Ban Treaty - which ended large-scale above-ground atomic tests. It didn't end the Cold War arms race, but was perhaps the greatest environmental treaty in history, drastically lowering the environmental radioactivity across the globe - perhaps saving many lives.

In the late 1960s, he was the first to attempt to calculate the victims of the bomb tests, estimating 375,000 American infants died in excess of the expected. He was blasted for daring to make such a revelation - but to this day, nobody has explained any factor accounting for the near-halt of steady declines in infant death rates during the 20th century.

Soon, he shifted his focus to the fast-expanding fleet of nuclear reactors. He wrote numerous articles, books, and editorials, lectured extensively, testified to government panels, and helped citizen groups around the nation with their efforts.

Ernest had many, many admirers. But being one of the only physicists to go public with work on health hazards of routine reactor emissions (John Gofman and Arthur Tamplin were among this very small group), he was badly criticized by physics and public health world - who insisted that "no risk" existed, without the benefit of conducting the needed studies. His brilliance was matched only by his courage. He co-founded RPHP with Dr. Jay Gould in 1989.

Even later in life, he was committed to his work. Below is a photo of the talk he gave on June 13, 2013 at our group's annual meeting in New York - 50 years since his testimony for the Treaty. Nearly age 90, he still gave strong remarks about the importance of the Treaty, and of the continued efforts to reduce exposures.

More on Ernest can be found on our web site ( http://www.radiation.org ).

I ask you to join me in giving Ernest his proper recognition.

With best wishes,

Joseph Mangano
Radiation and Public Health Project

[burrowowl]

3. RIP!

and thank for the wonder of seeing the moon walk!

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4. His testimony helped convince the Senate to adopt the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2015/02/physicist-ernest-sternglass-dies-91

Physicist Ernest Sternglass dies at 91
By Blaine Friedlander

Ernest Sternglass ’44, M.S. ’51, Ph.D. ’53, whose correspondence as a young physicist with Albert Einstein led to an electron amplification discovery that – two decades later – allowed hundreds of millions to watch live video of Apollo 11 astronauts walking on the moon, died of heart failure Feb. 12 in Ithaca. He was 91.

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In the early 1960s, some scientists and doctors were becoming concerned with the public health effects of atomic bomb testing. Sternglass and others had correlated medical X-ray exposure to the developing fetus with a significantly increased incidence of childhood leukemia and infant mortality. In 1963, on the last day of the Senate Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty hearings, Sternglass testified that atmospheric bomb testing produced the equivalent of several such X-rays. Studies showed that the health impact was far greater than had previously been thought, particularly for unborn children. His testimony helped convince the Senate to adopt the treaty.

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After a sabbatical working with Nobel laureate Robert Hofstadter at Stanford in 1967, Sternglass moved to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to organize a new laboratory to develop imaging in medicine – with the hope of developing advanced digital X-ray technology to reduce patients’ radiation exposure and improve image quality, and thereby health outcomes.

Sternglass led pioneering work in digital X-ray imaging at Pittsburgh’s Department of Radiology from 1967 to the early 1990s. In the late 1960s, X-ray images were recorded on film. In 1983, Sternglass and colleagues, including Donald Sashin (radiology, University of Pittsburgh) published “Approaching Radiology's Theoretical Limits,” in the journal Diagnostic Imaging. The physicists had found a way to use conventional X-ray sources with a solid-state detector system to create digital images. The images could be enhanced by a digital computer to expose previously invisible details that were highly valuable to doctors. This work pioneered today’s ubiquitous digital X-ray imaging.

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[shenmue]

5. Rest in peace

[hunter]

6. Sadly, the original slow scan tapes of the moon landing were erased in the early 1980's...

... leaving only less detailed (and primitive) broadcast television conversions.

Basically, the live video conversion was made by pointing an ordinary television camera at a slow scan monitor.

Modern digital signal processing techniques might have turned these lost original tapes into something quite lovely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_missing_tapes

NASA still got some pretty good digital restorations from the many converted recordings that were kept.