Lloyd Mallan (1914-1973) was a 20th-century American

science writer Science journalism conveys reporting about science to the public. The field typically involves interactions between scientists, journalists and the public. Origins Modern science journalism originated in weather and other natural history obs ...

. His works were controversial in that they often went against scientific consensus at the time.

Early life

Mallan was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, PA in 1914. He attended

Carnegie Tech Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a Private university, private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became t ...

as a night student.

Career

Mallan joined the Communist party in 1932 and went to Spain from 1937 to 1938 to fight with the Loyalists against the Fascists in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. He was a member of the

Abraham Lincoln Brigade The XV International Brigade was one of the International Brigades formed to fight for the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. History The XVth Brigade mustered at Albacete in January 1937. It consisted of English-speaking volunte ...

, a group of American volunteers fighting against the fascists. After returning from the war, he was a writer and translator. In 1939 he wrote a piece on the assassinated poet

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...

that "helped shape the public Simage of him". Mallan became a full time freelance writer and popularizer of science, and especially space technology, in the 1950s. His works included: *An article ''The Big Red Lie'', published in the April 11, 1959, issue of ''

True True most commonly refers to truth, the state of being in congruence with fact or reality. True may also refer to: Places * True, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States * True, Wisconsin, a town in the United States * ...

'' magazine. This article argued that the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

had fabricated the story that their

Luna 1 ''Luna 1'', also known as ''Mechta'' ( , ''Literal translation, lit.'': ''Dream''), ''E-1 No.4'' and ''First Lunar Rover'', was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of Earth's Moon, the first spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit, and the fi ...

probe launched in 1959 had flown past the moon. Congressional hearings were held in part due to the popularity of this position. The hearings ultimately concluded that the mission had occurred based on expert testimony and the receipt of radio waves from the probe by US radio antennas. *An article, ''Did the Russians Fake the Moon Photos?'' in

Popular Photography ''Popular Photography'', formerly known as ''Popular Photography & Imaging'', also called ''Pop Photo'', is a monthly American consumer website and former magazine that at one time had the largest circulation of any imaging magazine, with an edit ...

, April 1960, claimed that the photos of the

far side of the Moon The far side of the Moon is the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing away from Earth, the opposite hemisphere is the near side. It always has the same surface oriented away from Earth because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. C ...

taken by the Soviet

Luna 3 Luna 3, or E-2A No.1 (), was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 as part of the Luna programme. It was the first mission to photograph the far side of the Moon and the third Soviet space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon. The hi ...

spacecraft were faked and were in fact paintings.The Daily Courier, March 14, 1960, Page 1. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-courier-russia-fake-moon-photo/3691347/ : accessed February 15, 2024), clip page for Russia fake moon photos march This view later debunked as better photos of the lunar far side became available. *The book ''Peace is a Three-edged Sword'', published in 1964, that claims that an accidental nuclear war, such as that depicted in the then-popular movie ''

Dr. Strangelove ''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'' (known simply and more commonly as ''Dr. Strangelove'') is a 1964 political satire black comedy film co-written, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is loosely ...

'', is impossible. The conclusion was based on Mallan's interviews of multiple US scientists and military personnel. *The book ''It Is Safe to Smoke'', published in 1967, that purports to find that charcoal filters in cigarettes makes them safe to smoke.

References

{{reflist 1914 births 1973 deaths 20th-century American writers Writers from Pittsburgh