The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-01-13
Radio

lust as only a handful of math-
- ematicians in the world COM
prehend all the field theory" so it
was said that only a handful un-
derstood Maxwell's theory. Several
well-known scientists stated pub
licly that they did not know what
Maxwell was talking about.
The difficulty was that no one
knew exactly what Maxwell meant
when he claimed that light con-
sisted of electromagnetic waves, for
no one ever had dealt with electro
magnetic waves.
But a few years later Professor
Heinrich Hertz. attempting an ex-
perimental verifcation of Maxwell's
theory. discovered the existence of
other electromagnetic waves. These
were named Hertzian waves in his
honor by other scientists.
Today the world has another
name for Hertzian waves. It calls
them radio waves. It will be seen
therefore, that radio with all its
important developments, broadcast
ing, Atlantic telephony, tele-
vision and radio control of airplanes
for example, had their beginnings In
the Maxwell theory of light.
It is interesting to note that all
Eillstein's theories, the special the
DRY of relatively, the general the
ory of relatively ard the field theory
are based. as Einstein himself
states. upon extensions Of Max
wells equations.
What practical results will come
from the Einstein theory is thing
which scientists hesitate to pre-
dict. The suggestion has been made
that perhaps it will lead to means
Of insulating against gravity or
overcoming the pull OF gravity.
Scientists hesitate to commit them
selves to any prediction.
But they feel that the EinStein
theory. pointing out new funda-
mental relations in the universe, is
sure to have important results.
n
Surprises
n OOKING ahead to 1880. scien-
IL lists hesitate to say what the
big scientific developments OF the
year may be. They point to the fact
that in laboratories scattered
through the world. there are scien-
lists who have been engrossed IN
problems for years, In some cases
five years. in others twenty.
Any of these may reach a success
full elimination In 1880.
1t is easy to point to many such
examples in the past. The discovery
of insulin, the treatment for dia-
betes, burst upon the world with
dramatic Suddenness. The research
which led to insulin, however, occu-
pied DR.. Mcleod and his associates
for a dozen years.
Among the field In which inten-
sive study is going on and in which
1880 reasonably can be expected to
bring new developments are such
widely separated fields as the nature
of the atom, the mechanism Of he
LEQlty, tIlG OllBlL VI lllotAl dllQ CiiN
nature of cosnic space.
Study of the nature of the atom
has been given tremendous impetus
by the development of the Schro-
dinger wave mechanics, according
to which the atom can be treated
fundamentally as wave in SIX
dimensional configufation space"
Like the Einstein theory, this
mathematical puzzle may lead to
unsupported, but important results.
Heredity now is believed to be
controlled by the genes as biologists
have named the constituents of the
chromosomes or red-like structures
in the nuclei of living cells.
The development Of a technique
by which X-rays can be used TO
study the genes has given biologists
a powerful research implement
which may yield important results.
Study Of the origin of man will be
aided by the present intense interest
in anthropological and archaeological
research.
Astronomers at Mt. Wilson, Cali
fornia, using the worlds largest tele-
scope, and mathematician at the
California Institute of Technology,
are cooperating In a study of the