Evening star., 1937-01-01
FORM Of ATOMS
CONCEPT REVISED
Harvard Physicist Pictures
Basic Unit as Having Two
"Perfect Fluids"
By Stan Correspondent oil The Star.

BY & Stan Correspondent oil The Star
ATLANTIC CITY, N. j., January /.
"A new concept Of the fundamental
structure of creation was presented
before the American Association for
the Advancement Of Science today by
Dean G. D. Birkhoff of Harvard Uni
versity, following his election as presi-
dent.
DR.. Birkhoff pictured the atom
alphabetically as consisting of twoI
perfect fluids" through which any>
disturbance moves with the speed of
light, intermiXing with each other.
The fluids, as he conceives them, are
positive and negative electricity.
The Harvard mathematician ex-i
planned that he had carried on for the
past 10 years various mathematical
experiments" to construct an atomic
model which would explain the ex-
perimentally determined behavior of
atoms, but with a space-time matrix
structure in accordance with the prin
ciples OF relativity.
In order to do this it was necessary
to introduce the concept of an as vet
unisolated force, which he calls the
atomic potential" to prevent his
relativistic atoms from exploding with
terrific forces.
Since early in the present century,
physicists generally accepted the
physical model of the atom, funda-
mental brick" of creation, postulated
by Nils Bohr, the Danish physicist.
His picture was that of a miniature
solar system, with a central nucleus.
corresponding to the sun, made up Of
particles of positive electricity, with
electrons, or units of negative cleo
tricity, packed among them. and with
other electrons revolving around like
the planets.
No Facts on Appearance.
There never was any positive evi
dence that this was what the atom
looked like. That kind of arrangement,
it was deduced, would act more nearly
like an actual atom than would any
other model which it was possible to
construct. The Bohr atom was
Newtonian model, constructed on a
concept of gravitational mechanics.
1t became essentially impossible
with the general acceptance of the
theory of relativity, but physicists held
on to 1t tenaciously for 10 years
altering 1t clumsily from time to time
to meet new concepts. Then came the
introduction of wave mechanics, and
the solar system atom disappeared
entirely as reality. For the past 10
years, it has been just mathematical
equation, with its symbols correspond
ing to nothing tangible to the human
mind.
He first worked out his perfect
fluid" atom. Dean Birkhoff explained
yesterday, as long ago as 1925. and has
determined that it accounts very well
for the emission of radiation phenom-
ena. which has been the great stum-
bling block of all atomic models. in so
far as the hydrogen atom. simplest Of
all. is concerned.
The two perfect fluids mixing with
each other and kept in equilibrium in
space time matrix by the unknown
atomic potential must not be consid-
cred, he stressed, as actual realities.
but as the best he can do to give the
wave mechanics equations a physical
form He is now at work, he said, on
other mathematical experiments" de-
signed to provide structure of reality
for the equations Of more complex
atoms than hydrogen. These expert
ments may, he said, make it necessary
to abandon the concept built up to ex-
plain the hydrogen behavior.
"Proto- -Nordics" Traced.
Finding Of remains of a race Of
"proto- -Nordics s"-lost first cousins OF
the long headed blonds who colonized
Northern Europe before the dawn of
history-in a mound in Northern Per-
sia whose lowest layer dated from
5000 years before Christ-was re-
ported today by DR. w. NJ Krogmsn
of Western Reserve University.
This mound, covering the remains of
three successive human occupation
which extended over $500 years, was
excavated in 1891 by a University of
Pennsylvania expedition and the skel-
etal remains sent to the Western Re-
serve anatomists for examination.
The population, DR.. Krogmar
found, was of two contrasting types
One was large skulled, rugged, massive
while the other was smaller-skulled,
smooth and gracile. The first, he
said, is quite obviously Nordic while
the other is closely related to the
Mediterranean race. The time Sc
quence of the burials shows that the
latter were the first settlers on this
site. They remained predominant in
numbers for about 1000 years, when
the "Nordics" began to outnumber
them.
The discovery gives a new validity
to the recent belief that the ancestors
of the present inhabitants of Northern
Europe came from the Russian Steppes
in the new Stone Age. One branch
turned westward, resulting in the
Nordics of today, while the other
moved southwark and apparently be-
came engulfed In the populations
which it invaded. The branch which
turned into Northern Persia. however,
were probably much closer to the an
cestral type than the Germans and
Scandinavians Of today.