H Ruben’s scientific contributions

... Although nitrous oxide (N 2 O), first discovered in 1793 by the English scientist Joseph Priestly, is known as a convenient curing means in medicine [1,2] and often used for more than two hundred years as an anesthetic [3,4], with recent extension in the area of maternal care [5], little was known in fact on its challenging behavior and detonation potential, disastrously demonstrated in the 2007 accident at Scaled Composites Co. on an county airport near Los Angeles, US [6]. The fact that no specific cause of the accident could have been found during the official investigation [7] leaves open the question of safety procedures with N 2 O handling. ...

Reference:

Cavitation Avoidance in Nitrous Oxide Rocket Engines Using the Efficient Transient 1D Downwind Prediction