“Recent investigations into close by space have given emphasis to the fact that lifestyle on earth is shielded by the atmosphere. Dying from ‘meteoritic stroke’ may possibly be a not-unusual coroner’s verdict if the protective canopy of the atmosphere were being not spread earlier mentioned our heads. In the course of the earlier thirteen several years I have been engaged in efforts to safe immediate measurement of the meteoritic fallout. My samples of meteoritic dust and cosmic spherules have arrive from the tops of substantial mountains remote from industrial civilization, and from the base of the ocean. The facts now show that meteoritic product comes down to earth in significantly much larger quantity (about 5 million tons for every calendar year) than earlier estimates. —Hans Pettersson”

Scientific American, February 1960

Far more gems from Scientific American’s initially a hundred seventy five several years can be discovered on our shiny anniversary web site.