Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-27
WORLD OF SCIENCE
WILL CENTER HERE
DURING FORTNIGHT
Seven important Conferences
Are Planned, to Cover
Wide Range.
BIOLOGICAL MYSTERIES
OF LIFE TO BE STUDIED
DR.. Millikan to Discuss Cosmic
Rays, Which May Tell Story
of Earth's Creation.

For the next two weeks Washington
will be the center Of the world OF
science.
An unusual number of first announce
ments of important scientific discoveries
will be made at the three-day session
of the National Academy of Sciences,
the senate of American science, which
opens tomorrow.
The first session will be devoted to
the biological mysteries of the nervous
system which underlie the whole sub
ject of human life and behavior. Francis
G.. Benedict of the Carnegie Institution
of washington will explain why think
ing is hard work and people get tired
without moving a muscle. Simon Flex-
ner Of the Rockefeller Institute will out
line recent research work on the effects
on the human nervous system OF the
filterable viruses, the smallest known
forms Of life, which are responsible for
such diseases as infantile paralysis and
the dreaded Rsrros t fever oth her
aavior Of the tubercle bacillus, the ar
chitecture of living cells, the hearing
of fishes, the nervous mechanism re-
sponsible for hearing, and electrical re-
actions in cells which probably are re-
sponsible for life.
Rays May Explain Creation.
On Tuesday DR.. Robert A. Millikan
and ]. s. Bowen of the California In
stitute of Technology viii discuss the
significance of recent cosmic ray expert
mentS. These rays are the mysterious
extremely short waves from outer space
which are continually bombarding the
surface of the earth and will go through
q foot of solid lead, the existence of
which was discovered by DR.. Millikan.
They may tell the story OF the creation
and disintegration of matter through
out the universe. Richard c. Tolman of
the same institution will describe the
effect of the annihiliation of matter on
the wave length of light coming count
less millions of miles through space
from the spiral nebulae.
More light on the deductions to be
drawn from the celebrated Nicholson
Morley experiment on the speed of light
In relation to the movement Of the
earth through space, upon which is
based the Einstein theory Of relatively,
will be given by DR.. Charles z. st. John
of the Mount Wilson Observatory of
the Carnegie Institution.
Tuesday afternoon members of the
academy will turn their attention to the
new planet just discovered beyond Nep-
tune and the indication of other planets
from the Irregularities in the orbit of
Uranus which must be caused by the
gravitational pull Of bodies further in
space. Other speakers will range mil
lions of years into the past when iron
deposits were laid down by tiny bac-
terra, when giant creatures related to
the modern rhinocert roamed the earth
and when strange, mollusk-like crea-
lures crawled on Cambrian beaches.
The academy meetings will be fol-
lowed at once BY those OF the American
GeophySical Union, composed OF geo.
physicists, meteorologists and oceanog-
raphers. The report Of the committee
Of the meteorological section for the
study Of the effects of solar radiation on
the earth's weather will be presented by
DR.. H. H. Kimball of the Weather Blu
reau. Prof. c. F. Marvin, chief of the
bureau. will discuss the week as the
unit of time. In the geodesy section
DR.. Paul D. Heyl of the Bureau of
Standards, who has been engaged for
more accurate weight of the earth by
a gravitation measurement in an un-
foreground chamber, will describe tAe
progress Of the work. Tides raised on
the surface Of the earth will be dis
cuSsed by Harlan T. Stetson and
methods Of precise measurement Of time,
such as are necessary in scientific ex-
periments, by Alfred L. LOOMS.
Sea Mysteries Revealed.
Unsolved mysteries of the depths of
the sea will be discussed by the section
on oceanography. @. S. Kempff will
tell the scientists of the Nays project
to chart the bottoms of the great oceans
by echo saunders. The program Of in
irrational polar research, planned for
the year 1928, will be described by
II. u. Sverdrup, and there will be re-
ports Of the voyage of the Inflated, nom
magnetic ship, Carnegie, of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, destroyed by
an explosion in Samoa last year.
The Geophysical Union meetings will
be followed next week by those Of the
American Meteorological Society at the
Weather Bureau.
The scientific meetings will be con-
tinued during the week by the In
ternational Congress on Mental Hygiene,
the American Psychiatric Society, the
American Society for Study of the
Feeble Minded and the Seismological
Society of America. The first three,
holding joint meetings through the
week, will bring to Washington several
thousand delegates from all over the
world. The Seismological Society of
America, concerned with the study of
earthquake phenomena, will meet Mon
day and Tuesday at the Bureau OF
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