A giant Father Christmas made of ice, which is claimed to be the world's biggest Santa has been unveiled in China. The 525 feet long sculpture is the centerpiece at the world-renowned ice festival in the city of Harbin, where temperatures drop to well below freezing in the winter. But sculptor Tang Guangjun said unseasonably warm temperatures and hazardous conditions had made it very difficult to carve the figure, which centers on an enormous face of Father Christmas, complete with flowing beard and hat. An estimated 800,000 tourists from around China are expected to visit the festival, which traditionally runs from mid-December to early February.

The first radioactive isotope medicine was administered, Berkeley, Cal. When Ernest Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron, recognized the possibilities for uses of nuclear isotopes in medicine, he persuaded his brother John to join the Berkeley Laboratory. John Lawrence started Donner Laboratory circa 1936. Treating a 28-yr-old woman with chronic leukemia, he administered a radioactive isotope of phosphorus-32 that had been artificially produced in a 37-in cyclotron. It was the first time that a radioactive isotope had been used in the treatment of a human disease as well as the start of a career-long contribution from John Lawrence. He became known as the father of nuclear medicine and his laboratory is considered the birthplace of this field.