Evening star., 1925-12-31

! Two missing chemical elements.
! Nos 43 and 10. We're discovered by
| means of Spectra obtained by passing
| a beam of X-rays through concen-
! trated solutions of rare minerals. DIR.
! Walter Noddack of Berlin, the diScov-
erer, named them masurium and rhe-
| mum.
! Production of methanoi or wood al
/ cohoi from coal was invented and de
! Veloped in Germany. Experiments
| with this German synthetic methanol
at the Harvard Medical School showed
II to be as poisonous as wood or
! methyl alcohol
] "A new process by which pure
! NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. less than two
one hundredths OF l per cent of i'm
! purity-can be made commercially
| was reported
! Rare elements such as lithium. va
/ nadium and nickel were found In pc
4 troleum ash in quantities sufficient TO
warrant their extraction from the
/ ashes of petroleum CokeS and to he
used as future sources Of these sub
| stances.
Evolution.
| The State Of Tennessee passed law
forbidding the teaching of evolution in
! public schools and universities. The
| testing Of this law, by the trial Of
John r Scopes Of Dayton. Tenn, in
! July, was one of the most dramatic
| events of the year The verdict Of
! the lower court was conviction The
I constitutionality Of the Law will be
! tested before the supreme Court Of
| the State in January, 1926
! Life existed on the earth when the
Oldest known rocks We're formed DIR.
! John ". Gruner of the University of
! Minnesota found fossil remains OF
! blue-green algae in ArChaean rocks
which We're believed once to have been
formed by the direct cooling Of a
| molten earth.
! The biggest lot Of diuosaur bones
ever found in one place was unearthed-
in Tanganyika, formerly German East
Africa.
/ Chemical affiuities between the blood
| of apes and man. much closer than
| that between the tailed monkeys and
man. was shown by sociological tests at
the Rockefeller Institute.
! Evidence of the process of evolution
actively going on was discovered in
snails of the South Seas. The diverg
encies shown did not produce distinct
| species but the existence Of divergent
| individuals of adult growth showed
| that mutation is real and cotem-
poraneous process"
Geography.
The Maud, Capt. Amundsen's ship.
! returned after three years OF drifting
in Arctic ice, and Dr. Harald Sverdrup
| reported tidal observations that indi-
cate there is no land IN the unexplored
| Arctic area.
A great submarine current which
runs from the North Atlantic and
comes to the surface again 1000 miles
| south of the Equator was discovered
by the German ship Meteor.
Experiments to see whether ships
could detect hidden icebergs by the
sonic depth recorder were made by
United States Coast Guard cutters.
| Perfection of new sounding device
especially designed for speedy map
ping Of the ocean floor by means Of
echoes from the sea bottom was an
nounced.
Geology.
The city of Santa Barbara. Calf,
was badly damaged by q heavy earth
quake in June; another earthquake
shook Montana and neighboring States
at the same time. New England and
Eastern Canada were shaken by an
earthquake in February 2s.
The United States Coast and Geo
detic Survey. the Jesuit Seismologfca!
| Association and Science Service OF
Washington, cooperating with seismo-
logical observatories in the United
States and foreign countries. have
perfected a method of quickly and ac-
curately locating the epicenters, or
points of greatest motion, Of earth
quakes.
Footprints of animals that lived
$4,000, 900 years ago were found In
primitive rocks $50 feet below the top
of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado
River. They are believed to have been
crustaceans and amphibianS.
Rich deposits of platinum have been
found in the Transvaal.
Inventions.
A boiler in which the flame burns
In direct contact with water, thereby
eliminating much Of the heat loss COM
mon In other boilers, was invented by
a Belgian scientist
An airplane gasoline tank which can
be completely riddled by explosive
bullets without bursting into flames
or leaking was developed in Vienna.
A system of musical stenography by
which the full orchestrated score can
be taken down as 1t is played was de-
vised by NJ. Henry Raymond In
Switzerland.
The rotor ship which uses wind
power by means Of rotating cylinders
Instead of by sails was invented In
Germany by DR.. F'lettner.
c. Francis Jenkins Of Washington,
I'D. c., reported that he had success
fully sent moving pictures by radio
from one room of his laboratory to an
lother, and that long-range radio
movies had been proved practicable.
Synthetic wool was commercially
lproduced from wood by processing
similar to those used in making rayon
or artificial silk.
A gas mask effective against all
poisonous gases, provided they are
not too strongly concentrated, was
developed by the United States Bu-
reau Of Mines.
Medicine and Physiology.
The use Of delicate electric needles
to replace the surgeons knife and
render surgery less painful and dan
gerous was announced by DR.. Howard
A. Kelly Of Johns Hopkins University.
A new chemical substance COM
posed partly of arsenic and bismuth
was found effective in the treatment
Of syphilis by scientists Of the Pasteur
| Institute in Paris.
| Successful use of radium in the
treatment of leprosy was reported by
the Kalihi Leper Receiving Hospital
at Honolulu.
Eggs from hens deprived of SUM-
light were found to lack vitamin,
(which prevents rickets in children,