Evening star., 1935-02-19
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Mature and natures laws lay hid in
night.
God said, Let Newton be- and all was
light"
So, at least, 1t seemed to Alexander
Pope and to physicists and phi
loSophers for two centuries after the
great Englishman discovered the law
of gravity, by which, for the first time,
was possible a rational and logical
explanation of the behavior of the
universe. 1t explained almost every
thing in the mechanics of nature,
from the fall of an apple to an eclipse
OF the sun, very precisely, so that pre-
dictionS could be made years ahead
which would be verified within a split
second.
But Sir Isaac was mostly wrong,
says Prof. George Gamow of the
Leningrad Academy of Science, who is
now visiting professor Of nuclear
physics at George Washington Uni
versity and who is lecturing to Wash
ington scientists on the latest phases
Vi NC"OOl1 IldAC q 4Cu1dk n
able approximation which is still good
enough for such gross calculations as
the split-second prediction Of eclipSes.
but which is far from the actual facts.
His approximation must now be
replaced by the principle of uncer-
tainty," which, even more than rela-
tivity, is bugbear of the new physics
One never can tell precisely where
any moving object is at any precise
time.
Basic in the Newtonian mechanics
was the concept of the trajectory or,
as in the case of planets revolving
around the sun, the orbit. One knew
precisely the force impelling an object
of a known mass away from another
object also Of known mass, and one
knew precisely the gravitational forces
the two exerted on each other. So,
whether the moving object were a
cannon ball or a planet, the mathe-
matician could calculate exactly where
it would be at any given instant. The
balliSticS experts could predict where
cannon ball would be in space half
second after it left the gun. The
astronomer could predict exactly where
the planet Neptune would be in space
at 11:15 pm. October 3, 1860. At
least they thought they could, and for
all practical purposes the assumption
was justified. The twentieth century
dawned ON q lawful and orderly uni
verse.
Then, explains DR.. Gamow, the
trouble started. The first trouble
maker was Albert Einstein, back in
1909. This was long before the trouble
some theory of relatively came into
general notice. The bomb he threw
was clear demonstration that radiant
energy-most familiar in the form of
light-waS emitted only in precise
amounts. It came in standard
sized package, the so-called quantum.
The smallest possible amount of energy
was one quantum. The next smallest
possible amount was two quanta.
There couldn't be quantum and q
half or a quantum and nine-tenths.
Any amount Of energy would be an
exact multiple Of the quantum.
Hitherto 1t had been supposed that
there could be any graduation what
soever in the amount of light. But
when the physicists thought about 1t
they realized that If this were true
the newly-evolved concept of the
atom-comparable to a miniature
solar system with negatively charged
particles called electrons revolving
around a central nucleus of positively
charged particles called protons-was
untenable. As such an atom lost en-
ergy continuously through emission
the electrons would drop into the
nucleus and in a minute fraction Of
a second there would be no atom.
The concept of the quantum, as
evolved by Einstein and the Danish
physicist Nils Bohrs was essential to