New-York tribune., 1922-12-29
Grand Canyon
To Erase Self.
Says Scientist
DIR. Davis, Geology Profess
sor Emeritus of Harvard,
Tells How Nature Will
Level All High Lands
Synthetic Sugar Sought
Research Workers Predict
Man Will Some Day Dupli-
cate Processes of Plants

CAMBRIDGE. Mass, Dec. %. -- The
prediction that the forces Of erosion
would continue 70 widen the Grand
Canyon Of the Colorado River until all
tho neighboring highlands were leveled
into nearly featureless lowlands vas
made before the American Association
for the Advancement OF Science to-
night. The speaker was William Nor
ris Davis. professor emeritus OF geol-
ogy at Harvard University.
There could be no question, Dr.. Davis
said. that the canyon had been produced
By the gradual work Of weather and
water
"Such cycles Of erosion" he said.
have been essentially completed here
and elsewhere in tho past, wherever
highlands have been from time 70 time
upheayed.
Pive Cycles Of Erosion
"The walls Of tho canyon arc out
spoken witnesses % the passage Of five
long cycles Of erosion before the ero-
sion of the canyon was begun. They
exhibit the work Of local erosion in
the removal Of ancient highlands 30
completely that they were reduced 10
lowlands.
STUDY Of the canyon and OF the
earth generally reveals no creation,
but only a long sequence Of changes,
an evolution.
DR.. Herman A. Spoehr, Of the Car
negic Institution Of Pittsburgh, said
that he and his co-workers In thirteen
years Of experimentation had been un-
able 10 duplicate artifcially the photo.
A l. A. Il II rrsE. -
plants manufacture sugar out Of water
and the carbon dioxide OF the air, using
sunlight as their source OF energy.
He expressed the conviction that sci
ence ultimately would bring about this
artificial duplication. When i was
done. he said, the world would have
available not only much greater sup
ply OF food. but a much greater supply
Of total energy.
Alphabet Influences Civilization
The influence OF written language
upon civilization was discussed by DR..
Chi Ii. Chinese graduate student at
Harvard. He expressed the belief that
picture language such as that o.
China and the alphabet used in most
countries produced fundamentally diff
ferent types Of civilization. Use Of the
alphabet. he said. resulted in capacity
for change and in capacity for sustain
ing any idea; use Of tho picture Ian
guaFc resulted in invulnerability TO
storm and stress and resistance TO
change.
"The fundamental reason why China
is 50 slow in being mOdernized," he
added, ais that its language cannot be
indexed. Modern culture means science
and machines, and neither can operate
without an index system"
DR.. Oscar Riddle, research associate,
told the American Society OF biologists
Of Investigations on the physiological
basis and cause OF sex undertaken By
the Carnegie Station for Experimental
Evolution at Cold Spring Harbor, L I.
Studies Ser with Pigeons
i had been found, he said, that when
pigeons laid eggs in rapid succession
during a prolonged period they pro-
duced toward the end o. the period 4
great many more females than males,
and simultaneously the yOlk OF the egg
became larger. He said his studies in
dicated that this progressive increase
in size Of the yOlk was accompanied in
many cases "by both true and partial
sex reversals.'
Explaining the Dart played b. natu-
rsl selection in the local distribution
{ animals, Dr. Harold S. Cotton. as
sistant professor OF zoology az the Uni
yersity Of Pennsylvania, told Of an cx-
pertinent of the coast of Maine. Dog
whelks. variety OF snails, sometimes
known as wrinkles, arc abundant on the
rocks Of this region. Their shells arc
Of many different colors, but the pro-
portions of the eolors vary with the
locality.
Dr. Cotton knew that the whelks
were n favorite food for gulls. In a
tide pool on Little Duck Island. Eve
miles out from Mount Desert, he placed
eighty white snails and eighty dark
ones. Returning 10 the island two
months later, he found that for every
two dark colored survivors there was
but one Of light color. The gulls had
been proved a factor in governing the
color Of snails in that locality.