England’s Intelligentsia

The British Association for the Advancement of Science, founded 1831, the most important of English scientific congresses, held its annual meeting in Liverpool under the presidency of Sir Ernest Rutherford, Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge, where he succeeded Sir Joseph Thomson, famed editor of The Outline of Science (TIME, April 7).

Sir Ernest’s presidential address was a graphic summary of present knowledge of atomic and electronic theory, so much of which is his own contribution. It was broadcasted throughout England. The years since 1918 he called “the heroic age of physical science,” for never before have discoveries of fundamental importance followed each other with such bewildering activity. ” No one can draw any sharp line of distinction between so-called pure and applied research. Both are equally essential to progress.”

It is practically established that particles of positive and negative electricity are the fundamental units which build up our universe. Taking uranium, the element with the heaviest known atomic weight (92), as an example, he described the structure of a typical atom. At the center is a minute nucleus of positive electricity (a proton), surrounded by a swirling group of 92 electrons (negative), all in motion in definite circular and elliptical orbits. The electrons nearest the nucleus have an average speed of 93,000 miles a second—half the speed of light—while the outer ones have a slower rate. Different atomic groups may interpenetrate each other at the edges without their electrons becoming detached. If such an atom were imagined to be a mile in diameter, the nucleus would be the size of a pea, and the electrons would have the diameter of dining tables. The nucleus must thus have an inconceivable density to counterbalance the smallness of its mass. But an immense amount of work must still be done before anything like a complete picture of even the outer structure of the atom can be formed.

Sir Ernest disposed of the belief that an immense store of energy can be generated if man ever succeeds in breaking up the atom. For 20 years he and other physicists have been experimenting on this problem, trying to ” bombard ” or ” excite ” the atom so as to drive the electrons out of position. If it were possible to hasten the radioactive processes and compress the period of disintegration in such substances as uranium and thorium into a few days, instead of millions of years, energy might be released which would be of practical importance. But there is no evidence that this rate can be altered in the slightest by the most powerful laboratory agencies. There is no certainty today that the atoms of an element contain hidden stores of energy.

Dr. Vaughan Cornish, president of the geographical section, reviewed the strategical significance of the geographical position of the British Empire.

Sir William H. Bragg, Quain Professor of Physics of the University of London, and winner, with his son, of the Nobel Prize for physics in 1915, discussed the nature of the forces which hold together the molecules of a body of matter, the atoms within the molecules, and the electrons within the atoms, like a series of interlocking bolts.

Prof. C.E.R.S. Sherrington, in the economics section, compared the U. S. and British transportation acts.

Prof. A. J. Pape, Edinburgh anthropologist, proposed the hypothesis that a new human race type is evolving. Medical, mathematical and educational evidences suggest that cranial development is increasing, frontal and parietal bone growing heavier, hair and skin taking on finer texture. Psychologically, he said, sympathy, pity, intuition, and sensitiveness are characteristic of this type. The taste for meat and coarse foods is declining, without a corresponding growth of appetite for other foods. He failed to indicate in what nation or habitat this anti-Nietzschean superman is to be found.

Prof. G. Elliot Smith, distinguished anatomist and anthropologist of the University of London, traced in the relics found in TutankhAmen’s tomb resemblances to cultural elements from remote races, affording proof of the widespread diffusion of early culture. Many of the same arts and crafts were found in the Egyptian delta as early as 3400 B. C. and in Polynesia.

Dr. Cyril Burt president of the psychology section, advanced the thesis that just as there is a certain minimum intelligence required for the successful performance of any occupation, so there may also be a maximum intelligence, beyond which waste arises in forcing too large a peg into too small a hole.

Sir Oliver Lodge speculated on what becomes of waste energy radiated from the sun and other stars. The earth gets less than one billionth part of the sun’s heat. Is the remaining radiation absorbed by the universe? He suggested that this is a possible source of electron formation and the birth of new matter.