Evening star., 1932-04-24
WORLD OF SCIENCE
TO HAVE BASE HERE
FOR NEXT Z WEEKS
Academy Meeting Tomorrow
to Be Followed by Seven
Other National Groups.
NOTED U. S. RESEARCH
WORKERS WILL ATTEND
Opening Session to Be Devoted
Largely to New Discoveries
in Chemistry.

Washington will be the headquarters
OF the world of science for the next two
weeks with eight national organizations
holding their annual meetings here.
Tomorrow the National Academy Of
Sciences, the senate of American SCI
ence, will start its Spring sessions,
bringing to Washington the foremost
research workers in the United States.
This years session is centered around
the centennial observance of the electri-
cal discoveries OF Joseph Henry first
secretary of the Smithsonian Institu-
ton, from whose experiments came the
basic principles of the telegraph and
the electric motor and who nearly a
hundred years ago, made experiments
with wireless transmission of electrical
energy. A public meeting tomorrow
night will be devoted to the life and
researches Ct Henry.
Symposium on Climatic Cycles.
A feature of the National Academy
meetings this year will be a symposium
on climatic cycles, in which it is planned
to bring together all available evidence
on the rhythmic temperature variations
which seem to have continued for thCu-
sands of years. DR.. John c. Merriam,
president of the Carnegie Institution Of
Washington, will preside over this SYM
postum. DR.. A E. Douglass of the
University CT Arizona will present the
evidence gathered from measurements
of tree rings. The size Of these rings
indicates the heat and moisture of the
year during which they were formed.
Tree rings can be traced back for thou
sands of years in practically unbroken
sequence. DR.. Charles G. Abbot, sec
retary of the Smithsonian Institution,
will describe recent discoveries on
periodicitieS in the variations of solar
radiation, upon which the earth de-
pends for its warmth. Drs. w. S.
Adams and S. B. Nicholson Of the
Mount Wilson Observatory will tell of
recent observations which may explain
these cycles in the suns output Of
heat. DR.. Isaiah Bowman of the Amer
ican Geographic Society will describe
the correlations found between climatic
records and sedimentary records over
many centuries.
The opening session tomorrow morn
ing will be devoted largely to new dis
Bancroft of Cornell University will pre-
sent his latest conclusions ON the pos
sibility of curing drug addicts by ad-
miniStration of drugs which affect the
coagulation of the proteins of the ner-
vouS system. At the afternoon session,
when most of the papers will deal with
the biological sciences, DR.. Simon Flex-
ner of the Rockefeller Institution will
describe experiments to uncover the
mode of infection and possible means
of prevention of infantile paralysis,
which swept over the Northeastern
States last Summer. Astronomers and
physicists will be prominent in the
Tuesday morning program.
GeOphysics Meeting Thursday.
Following the annual business session
and election of the National Academy
Wednesday, the American PhySical So
ciety and the American Geophysical
Union will gather Thursday in numer-
GUS section meetings. The geophysi-
cistS will discuss final plans for Al eri-
can participation in the second inter-
national Polar year, which starts this
Summer Before the geodetic section
DR.. Paul r. Heyl of the Bureau Of
Standards will report the progress he
has made on the absolute determination
of the value of gravity at Washington.
DR.. F. A. Vening MeineZ, Dutch geo.
physicist, will give detailed report on
his gravity observations this Winter
during a submarine exploration of the
The meteorological section will con-
slider some of the changing conditions
which have led to the curious weather
anomalies in North America during the
last three years. The possibilities of
long-range forecaSting will be discussed,
and the data needed for weather pre-
diction which may be obtained by the
Arctic expeditions this Summer will be
outlined. Other sectional meetings will
earthquake phenomena, terrestrial mag
netism and electricity and oceanog-
raphy. A general assembly meeting
will be devoted to the application of
geophySicS to ocean basins and margins.
One Session Given to Cosmic Rays.
Starting Thursday, the American
Physical Society will be in session for
! three days at the Bureau of Standards
and the National Academy of Sciences
Building. Many of the papers to be
presented deal with the mysterious
world of the infinitely little. There will
be special papers on the transmission
of ultraviolet light through the atmo-
sphere. the size of the smallest known
| unit Of life as revealed by X-ray in
veStigationS, and the molecular Struc-
ture of ice and water. which recent
discoveries have shown to be a great
value in biology. One session will be
devoted largely to discoveries concern
ing the mysterious cosmic rays bonn
harding the earth from outer space.
On Saturday will be held the annual
meeting of the Americal Meteorological
Society at the Weather Bureau.
Throughout the next week the Amer
ican societies of Mammalogists. Herp-
! tologistS and Ichthologists will be in
session at the National Museum, with
reports on life studies of various ami
mails and specialized studies on such
subjects as the power of a porcupine
to move its quills parasites common to
wild and domesticated animals and ex-
tinct fauna