TRENDS

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TRENDS

The recent lunar landing and studies of the lunar surface produced the concept of lunar rills being formed byjowing water. J . E. M . Adler and J. W . Salisbury, Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Bedf ord, Mass. (Technology Review, Vol. 77, No. 9, 7969) have tried to discover what in fact happens when water is allowed to flow over soil in vacuum. That the experiment has not been tried before they attribute partly to the fact that it tends to ruin the vacuum system. This is an unusualjow problem and provides insight into the behavior of water in vacuum. How does water flow in a vacuum?

A powder-compacting technique to make thin steel strip has been developed by W. G. Jaflrey, I. Davies, and R. L. S. Taylor, British Steel Corp. (Science Journal, Vol. 5A, No. 3, September 1969). This powder process lends itself to the production of metal strip reinforced by strong and stz1Jilament.s or whiskers. The possibility of cu(ting capital costs by about a third and the various forms and composites this technique ofers will undoubtedly lead to early attempts to reduce this technology to practice. Technological progress, which seems to be viewed by most long-range planners as a series of evolutionary trends, more nearly approximates a closely spaced series of revolutions. The best time to prepare for the next revolution is the morning after implementing the last one. This can be done only by ignoring yesterday’s revolutionaries at the peak of their success. To this end, it would be helpful to develop the techniques of arguing with success at its peak. These are some of the conclusions outlined by M a x well W. Hunter 11, Lockheed Missiles €8 Space Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., in his article, “Are Technological Upheavals Inevitable?” (Harvard Business Review, SeptemberOctober 1969, pp 73-83). To a chemical engineer, this should say that there is always a better solution to a problem or a possible revolutionary way of making a process go more successfully.

by chemical engineers without their knowing it. D. W. T. Rippin, Department of System Engineering, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, England ( The Chemical Engineer, July-August 7969, pp CE 284-CE 289) shows the analogy by deJning a system and the objective of systems engineering. The author discusses means the systems engineer uses to attain his objective. A chemical plant is used as an example of a system for analysis.

Systems engineering has been and i s being done

An information system i s a means to an end and

not an end in iiself. The system’s documents,jfgures, and pictures should be used as information to manipulate, to index, and to display. Such a system gives what is asked of it; it does not make judgments regarding the use of its contents. This determination is the user’s job. This is the deJinition of an information system and its role for management, according to John H. Norton, Raytheon Co., in an article, “Information Systems: Some Basic Considerations,” in Management Review, J701. 58, No. 9, September 1969,pp 2-8.

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