Popular personal lubricant Astroglide was, as its name implies, invented in relation to the space program; it was discovered by a chemist looking for a substance that would purge oil from the anhydrous
ammonia used in the space shuttle's cooling system.
Newly arrived at UC Berkeley, Townes soon learned of plans by young professor William «Jack» Welch to build a short - wavelength radio telescope, and offered some of his startup funds to build a maser amplifier and microwave spectrometer so the telescope could be
used to search for evidence of complex molecules, like
ammonia,
in space.