The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-09-10
Today S Science
-BY DAVID DKTZ :

THE eighty-eighth meeting of the American
Il Chemical Society. which opens in Cleveland to-
day. serves to remind us of the tremendous adj
vances which chemistry has made in the last few
wears But the fact remains that Mother Nature still
has us beat when to the practices of chem
istry.
The late DR.. Edwin E slosson once commented
upon how fortunate We would be if we knew as much
chemistry a tree.
A tree takes the carbon doxide of the air and the
water of the soil and with the aid of sunlight turns
them into sugars and StarcheS. If we knew as much
chemistry as tree We could duplicate this process,
know technically photosyntheSis. and manufac-
ture foodstuffs in factories instead OF growing
them on the farm.
Thus freed from the cycle of the soil, We would
no longer be worried by droughts harried by over
abundant or insufficient harvests.
The tiny organisms Of the ocean know more
chemistry than we do. Certain chemical elements
are present in water in concentrations OF less
than fraction of a part in a million. Yet these
tiny creatures of the sea- requiring these chemical
elements for their growth. are able to absorb them
from the water and to concentrate them WITHIN
their own bodies.
IT is true that man has begun to catch up with
il nature Thus for example. it is well known that
photosynthesis is only possible in plants which con-
tain a green coloring or pigment known as chloro-
phyl. Many studies are going on into the nature OF
this complex chemical substance.
Not long before he made president of Har-
ward university Professor James Bryant Conant was
awarded the Nichols medal by the American Chem
lCal Society lor MS researches INTO nature VI
Chorophyl.
Thanks TO the work Of Professor Hans Fischer
Of Munich and Professor Conant. We know now that
chlorophy is really mixture of four substances, two
green pigments. known chlorophyl A and chic
rophvl B and two yellow pigments.
Il Is further know that the basis of all four pig
ment is a substance called porphyrin. Professor
Conant has shown that chlorophyl is based on
combinations of porphyrin with two hydrogen atoms
while in cholorophyl B the hydrogen atoms are re-
placed with an oxygen atom.
With respect TO the ocean and its chemical con-
tent mankind also is making progress. Bromine is
now extracted from water at plant built by the
Ethyl-Dow Chemical Company at Kure Beach, some
twenty miles south Of Wilmington, n. c.
THE surface OF the earth is about three-fourths
Il ocean but the constitution Of the is still
one of. the major chemical mysteries. DR.. Paul s.
Caltson of the United States bureau Of fisheries
points out that We still have much TO learn about
the subject.
There are at least thirty-two chemical elements
present in sea water. Many Of them are present
in such minute amounts that ordinary chemical
analysts viii not reveal their presence. However.
spectroScopic analysis proves that they are present
Among the elements present only in minute
traces. but which are concentrated by marine or
ganiSms their own bodies are iron, copper. zinc,
iodine. vanadum. varium and boron These are
concentrated and stored in the bodies OF fishes mol
luskS. shrimp and other animals and plants, Dr.
Galtsof SAYS.