Lifeboat Foundation News Blog: Author Genevieve Klien

Radar During World War II

 

During World War II, battles were won by the side that was first to spot enemy airplanes, ships, or submarines. To give the Allies an edge, British and American scientists developed radar technology to "see" for hundreds of miles, even at night. The research that went into improving radar helped set the stage for post-war research into the transistor.

1940s radar relied on a semiconductor crystal, or "rectifier." Radar worked by sending out a radio wave and analyzing the reflected wave after it bounced off any objects in the air. The rectifier's job was to translate the reflected signal into the direct current necessary for visualization on the screen. These crystals often couldn't handle the quickness and intensity of a rapidly changing radar signal. They would burn out frequently. A number of institutions, including Purdue, Bell Labs, MIT, and the University of Chicago, joined forces to build better crystals.

Trying different semiconductors and doping with different materials, the researchers learned which combinations produced the best results. Of special importance to semiconductor researchers was Seymour Benzer's discovery at Purdue. He found that germanium crystals made the best detectors. (Germanium was used to make the first working transistor five years later.) Scientists also learned new techniques on how best to grow and dope the crystals.

Within the decade, this superb understanding of crystal growing would pay off in unexpected areas, not the least of which were the insights necessary to allow the solid state researchers at Bell Labs to grow the germanium semiconductors that were the heart of the first transistors.

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World War II

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The World Food Program Will End Its Main Assistance Program In Syria In January, Affecting Millions

BEIRUT -- The U.N. World Food Program said Monday it will end in January its main assistance program across war-torn Syria, where over 12 million people lack regular access to sufficient food.

WFP in recent years has scaled down its support in Syria and neighboring countries that host millions of Syrians who fled the conflict, now in its 13th year. Humanitarian agencies have struggled to draw the world's attention back to Syria as they face donor fatigue and shrinking budgets.

In July, WFP said it had to cut assistance to almost half of the 5.5 million Syrians it supported in the country due to budget constraints.

A month later, the agency slashed cash aid to Syrian refugees in Jordan. In November, it and the U.N. Refugee agency said they will reduce the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon receiving cash assistance by a third next year.

WFP in its latest statement said the cuts come as food insecurity is "worse than ever before" and that millions will be affected.

The agency's most recent report in September said 3.2 million Syrians benefitted from its programs.

WFP said it will keep smaller aid programs, a school meals program and initiatives to rehabilitate Syria's irrigation systems and bakeries.

Like other major humanitarian agencies, WFP after the start of Syria's uprising-turned-civil war in 2011 scaled up support for Syrians in the country and for those who fled to Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq.

They have blamed their shrinking budgets for Syria on global donor fatigue, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, needs have surged in the besieged Gaza Strip during the Hamas-Israel war.

Though much of the fighting in Syria has subsided, the economic outlook is grim, whether in government-held territory, the northwestern enclave under al-Qaida-linked militants and Turkish-backed rebels, or the northeast under U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces.

The UN estimates that 90% across Syria live in poverty. The value of the national currency has spiraled, while an illegal drug trade flourishes and unemployed Syrians try to leave for opportunities elsewhere.

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