Science: National Academy

Last week the exclusive National Academy of Sciences acknowledged the recent contributions of western scientists by holding its 67th annual meeting in Berkeley, Calif., the Academy’s first visit west of the Mississippi. Some 100 members attended sessions divided among three of California’s famed research centres : University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University at Palto Alto, California Institute of Technology at Pasadena. Some points made in speeches:

Rising Sierra. Study of the records of eleven seismograph stations taken during an earthquake last Thanksgiving day in Nevada and California indicated that the Sierra region is rising, said Professor Perry Byerly, seismologist of the University of California. A comparison with recent material on Pacific Ocean disturbances showed a heavier granite formation in the Pacific region, indicated that the ocean bed is crowding against the lighter Sierra region, is shoving the mountains higher.

Elderly Bacteria, perhaps 100 million years old, were found trapped in pieces of anthracite coal from Pennsylvania and Wales, reported Dr. Charles Bernard Lipman, professor of plant physiology and dean of the Graduate Division at the University of California. Some bacteria were egg-shaped, others elongated and brilliantly colored. To see if they were still alive, Dr. Lipman put them in a proper breeding medium, found that in a few hours they had reproduced by the million. If additional research proves that the organisms were present when the coal was formed in a prehistoric swamp, they will be direct, minute evidences of the antiquity and nature of Life.

Nourishing Fat. The presence of fat compensates for a vitamin lack in the diet. Dr. Herbert McLean Evans and Dr. Samuel Lepkovsky of the University of California told Academicians that they had kept rats alive for months without vitamin B (necessary to prevent beriberi) by feeding them coconut oil, lard and cottonseed oil. Coconut oil was most effective, cottonseed oil the least.

High Speed Protons. An apparatus for accelerating the motion of protons until they race along at 37,000 mi. per sec. has been successfully tested, explained Dr. Ernest Orlando Lawrence, physicist at the University of California. The new method does not involve the difficult high voltages which have been thought necessary in producing high speed sub-atomic projectiles. Protons (hydrogen atoms stripped of their electrons) are sent back and forth between two semicircular hollow plates by means of alternating currents of 10,000 volts and a magnetic field. As they continue in a spiral motion they gather speed, finally shoot out the end of the tube, minute bullets capable of battering the nucleus of any atom in their path, perhaps of changing it into atomic energy which scientists have long talked about. Cosmic Rays. Although some scientists have thought that the “cosmic rays” which bombard the earth might be high-speed electrons, recent investigations have indicated that they are ether waves of very high frequencies, reported Robert Andrews Millikan, chairman of the executive committee of California Institute of Technology, one of the most famed of the great West Coast scientists. If they were electrons, the rays’ reception on earth would be influenced by the magnetic polar regions. To test this, Dr. Millikan took the electroscope with which he measures the rays to Churchill, Canada, only 875 mi. from the North Magnetic Pole. He made observations every day and night for a week, found the intensity of the waves the same in Churchill as it was in his home in Pasadena, concluded that cosmic rays bombard the whole earth equally. He also suggested to the Academicians that, since cosmic rays are affected by small changes of density in the air, the cosmic ray electroscope could be used to supplement the barometer in collecting information on earth’s atmosphere.