Evening star., 1924-04-30

The thrills OF the most melodra-
matte movie" become prosaic and
uninterestihg to one who once has a
glimpse of the wonderful unfolding
Of science as IL has been moving for
the new Temple of Science, built by
the munificent endowment of the Car
negie Corporation, which has given
$5,0e0,oo0 to erect the building and
maintain the National Bureau of Re
search, was dedicated, with speeches
by President Coolidge and the OIL
cials OF the Academy Of Science.
Some of the general public may have
thought of it as an institution deal
ing with impractioable problems,
dry as dust" which had no special
contact with ordinary human inter-
estS. but were meant only for the
highbrpws" who live apart from
bread and butter humanity, like her
mitS OF old in caves of the desert.
In the auditorium the walls are of
a new composition stone which ab-
serbs all echoes, so that q pin drop
ped on the platform gave q distinctly
audible sound, heard in the uttermost
corners of the great hall. A brass
ball hung from wire reaching from
the apex Of the dome fifty feet above,
swung as a pendulum, con tinuously
In the same plane in which II had
begun TO swing, and the earth re-
volved vfsibly under it. Does the
ems babies can there "see the wheels
go wound" In the apex OF the dome
is a fixed telescopic lens through
which the suns rays are focused
upon tablet beneath, showing the
sun spots. A sunbeam penetrates a
~ L.
splintered into its rainbow colors,
with lines showing Of what metallic
gases the sun is made.
With windows curtained, a movie"
portrays the cytoplasm of living flesh
shows 1T in its corpuscular death
ruggles-tragedies of microscopic
worlds never seen by unaided eyes.
All flesh is made Of cells What is
cell? A little bag SO small that it
takes powerful microscope to see
1t A learned scientist tells US that
IL We look into q. living cell we can
there see 1t holding SIX or a dozen
tiny balls like pistils of a flower.
Some of these balls are the males of
iife, some the females, and upon them
depend the inherited qualities OF our
ancestors
The spherical cell begins to elon-
gate. What causes that movement ?
Life. The elongation increases. The
pistiis' which hang from each end
OF the now melon shaped cell seem
attracted toward each other like mag
nets yet are held 20 their respective
ends by the threads with which they
are suspended.
narrower narrower and, finally,
divides into two cells These repeat
the elongation and multiplication.
That is growth Tell what power
draws these cells, multiplies them.
supplies and shapes the "pistils"
science. Scientists play with chemi-
calls; fancying they can make syn
\
Dry as dust? How dry is dust,
when one knows dust? There are
scientists ready to tell us that all
life originated spontaneously in
the dust OF the earth, or out of a
sperrn-celi. But who will tell how?
What happened to make the first cell?
Why does II not make another?
There are other scientists who say
that lifo might have come to this
planet riding uron 4 meteor from
some other planet But how did IT
arrive at the previous planets? God
breathed into man the breath Of life: (:
Oh, the mystery Of life, From what
bourne came il to earth? How long
upon its travels across space From
what universe to what other uni
verses had 1t travelled before flying
to our solar universe upon the stony
messengers we call meteors?
X +
DR.. -Coblentz OF the United States
bureau OF standards has invented an
instrument for measuring the tenn
r,eratJtre of stars-Stars so distant