The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-05-04
Today S Science
BY DAVID DIETZ-

ME annual spring scientific meetings in Phila-
Il delpha and Washington which have just
to a close reveal that science has made many impor
tant advances on number OF fronts. Most lmpor-
tant are the advances in the realm of atomic physics
These indicate that science is its way to
understanding of atomic structure TO the release of
atomic energy and to the easy transformation Of one
chemical element into another.
Lauritsen and Crane at the California Institute
of Technology Lawrence at the University of Cali
fornia, TIVE, Hafsted and Dahl the Carnegie In
Stuton of Washington Swami and his associates
at the Bartol Research Foundation, and others have
succeeded in performing experiments of type which
were only dreamed about few years ago.
For example. LauritSen and Crane using mil
hon-volt tube have fired nuclei of hydrogen
double weight hydrogen and helium atoms into
atoms of other substances
They obtain the transformation of chemical
element into another accompanied by the release of
gamma rays more powerful than those naturally re-
leased by radium.
They also succeeded in producing artificial or in
duced radio-activity The atoms produced by some of
their bombardments unstable subsequently
ploding just do the atoms of radium But instead
of releasing eectrons radium does, these atoms
release POSITIONS.
DR. SWAMI finds that during atomic transfer
II nations of this Sort particles of matter
sometimes transformed into energy At other times,
energy changed into matter.
These transformations, he finds obey the mass
energy law which Einstein formulated from purely
theoretical considerations in 1905 According to this
law. the energy equivalent of given amount of
matter is its multiplied by the square of the
velocity of light
This law means that a very little matter is
equivalent TO very large amount of energy. If a
pint of hydrogen could be transformed into energy
1t would drive ocean liner to Europe and back
again.
DR. Arthur H. Compton of the University of Chi
cago told of experiments to photograph atoms. He
exhibited photographs of atoms before the National
Academy of Sciences. More exactly they were
photographs of what atom would look like if I.
could be seen.
An atom is smaller than a ray of visible light and
hence not be made visible by the most powerful
microscope. Professor Compton shines a beam of
X-rayS through the atoms of gas.
From the way in which the beam is scattered by
the atoms he calculates the position of the eectrons
in the atom. From these calculations paper tenn
plate is cut which when rotated scatters visible
light in the way. The photograph of this
scattered light shows what the atom must look like.
A interesting theory proposed by Dr. R. A. Mil
hkan last week is that there are three funda-
mental particles in the world the positron, the cleo
iron. and the neutron The positron is positively
electrified particle, the electron negatively cleo
triled one. The neutron is neutral
Recent measurements in his laboratory indicate
that the weight of the neutron is less than that of
the proton the positive particle which exists in the
nuclei OF atoms.