Editing Thiotimoline (section)

=="Thiotimoline and the Space Age"==
Asimov wrote a third thiotimoline article on 14 November 1959 called "Thiotimoline and the Space Age".  Instead of a fake scientific paper, this third article took the form of an address by Asimov to the 12th annual meeting of the American Chronochemical Society, a nonexistent scientific society.  In his address, Asimov "describes" his first experiments with thiotimoline in July 1947, and timing the compound's dissolution with the original endochronometer, "the same instrument now at the [[Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian]]".  Asimov laments the skepticism with which chronochemistry has been greeted in America, noting with sorrow that his address has only attracted fifteen attendees.  He then contrasts the thriving state of chronochemistry in the [[Soviet Union]], with the research town of [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushchevsk]], nicknamed "Tiotimolingrad", established in the [[Ural Mountains|Urals]].

According to Asimov, two Scottish researchers have developed a "telechronic battery", which uses a series of 77,000 interconnected endochronometers to allow a final sample of thiotimoline to dissolve up to a day before water is added to an initial sample.  Asimov says there is "strong, if indirect, evidence that the Soviet Union possesses even more sophisticated devices and is turning them out in commercial quantities".  He believes that the Soviets are using telechronic batteries to determine ahead of time whether [[timeline of artificial satellites and space probes|satellite launches]] will be successful.

Finally, Asimov describes attempts to create a "[[uncertainty principle|Heisenberg failure]]", to get a sample of thiotimoline to dissolve without later adding water to it.  In every case where the thiotimoline dissolved, some accident occurred that caused some water to be added to it at the proper time.  Several attempts to create a Heisenberg failure in the mid-1950s coincided with a [[Hurricane Carol|series]] [[Hurricane Edna|of]] [[Hurricane Diane|hurricanes]] striking New England in such a manner as to suggest that nature would find a way to add water whatever man decided, if man were to be resolute in not adding water.  Asimov speculated that [[Noah]]'s [[Flood myth|flood]] might have been brought about by thiotimoline experiments among the ancient [[Sumer]]ians. He then concludes with some speculation about thiotimoline's potential applications as a [[weapon of mass destruction]] by deliberately using it to artificially induce hurricanes.

"Thiotimoline and the Space Age" appeared in the October 1960 issue of ''Astounding'', which was then in the final stages of changing its name to ''Analog''.  The article was reprinted in full in ''[[Opus 100]]'' (1969) and ''[[The Asimov Chronicles: Fifty Years of Isaac Asimov]]'' (1989).