Think Again: Cobalt Computer

Series

Series Name

Living Tomorrow

Issue

Issue No.

269

Date Released

1981

Length of issue (in feet)

522

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Think Again: Laundering Oil
2. 2Think Again: Vortex
3. 3Think Again: Cobalt Computer

Story

Story No. within this Issue

3 / 3

Summary

COI synopsis: Man’s compulsive search for perfection dictates a continuous re-appraisal of past success. For the enquiring mind, it’s just not enough that something works adequately - it can always be improved. In a London hospital, a bed performs a slow, gyrating, sophisticated, weird dance: and all its movements are controlled by computer. It’s the latest equipment to irradiate and excise irregular cancers that may form in the body; not as discrete lumps, but as malignancies that stretch down the thorax, for example. Pre-programmed, the bed swirls the patient in front of a cobalt head, eliminating the cancer without damaging other vital organs.

Keywords

Health and medicine; Science and technology; Engineering; Computers and computing; Design

Written sources

COI Microfilm Roll 55 [BFI National Archive]   Used for synopsis

COI Reference

MI 1458/269

Credits:

Sponsor

Central Office of Information (COI)

Sponsor

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Cutter

Fred Goodland

Cutter

Mike Murray

This series is held by:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries:
nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk
For commercial/footage reuse enquiries:
footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

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