Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-05-17
BY HAROLD X. PHILIPS.

~ INCE that epochal day when Christopher
Columbus returned to Spain and in
formed an incredulous people that this
- world most assuredly was not a risky,
inverted saucer from which the venturesome
soul who stepped too close to it's rim might
skid off into utter space, mans conception OF
things has been turned completely upside
down that if it were possible for learned sage
of the previous century to step suddenly back
into his earthly role he would probably find
himself stark ignoramus
So rapid and definite have been the ad
vances Of science in the last two-score of years
that even struggling encyclopedias have
been utterly incapable of keeping up with the
terrific pace, and men who are still young
enough to admit "reminiscences of their boy
hood days find their brains whirling dzzily
they endeavor to draw a comparison be-
tween the conceptions they were taught and
the new facts that have been brought to light
by modern scientists.
Ideas RevoIutionzed.
During the past Winter there have twice
come to Washington many of the men who are
responsible for this new outlook upon life, first
as delegates to the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, and the second
time as members of the National Academy of
Sciences. And each time there were made pub
lie yet newer achievements that were discov-
red in the quiet efficient research laboratories
which seem to be revolutionZing mans outlook
upon life, and even his ideas about himself.
Had you asked a comparatively few
years ago whether he believed the earth was
the center of the universe, he probably would
have turned away in disgust at such benighted
ignorance. But should you put the same ques-
ton to a student of today, he might quite
bthey ask in return: THE center of which
universe?" For are now virtually assured
that our universe is but of number of
universes, and that the edge of oblivion has not
yet even been touched.
Through the eyes Calico furnished cen
turtles back we have peered far out into space
and found it crowded with millions and mil
lions of stars we never dreamed existed. And
we have discovered those glowing dots to be,
not lanterns hung out to ornament our heavens,
but masses of vapor in the process of evolving,
perhaps. into planets like our own. These ex-
plorations Of the heavens however, have
yie'In yet more.
verse is from $50 900 to 800. 900 light years in
diameter. Light travels at speed of $4,000
miles a second. If you would like to know
what the speedometer of automobile that
had Travelled around that diameter would read
at the end of its journey just multiply the
number of seconds in 300 900 light years by
1S6, OO0 But to the other universes.
Island Universes' Found
One of the great discoveries of the last year
was that of the "island universes" Science had
suspected for some years that the tremendous
nebulae or whirling clouds of dustlike vapor,
that could be traced through the most power
full telescopes were not part of our own galax-
tic system. This theory has now become
fact, and are assured that the nebula In
Andromedo, for instance is something like
billion light years away. Even an outstanding
student like Copernicus would have turned pale
at such suggestion in his time
The meticulous modernist who shudders at
the thought OF being old-fashioned may no
longer express dmnutiveness in terms OF