Evening star., 1937-07-15
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Chemistry looks ahead-to day when
man may fly without wings. make the
rarest metals to order, conquer all in
fectious diseases, grow food crops abso-
lutely to order.
All these wonders may be just over
the next hill, according to tercentenary
autobiography of American chemistry
just issued under auspices Of COM
mittee of the American Chemical So
ciety. Today they sound fantastic, but
not more fantastic than the radio and
airplane of today seemed even half
century ago. Then the scientific foun-
dations for these miracles had been es-
tablished, but there had been no prac-
tical realization. And today may be
seen the basic elements Of the wonders
of tomorrow.
For example, says A. Crecy Morrison.
author of the autobiography, "the bonn
bardment OF the atom by powerful elec-
trio charges already has changed plat
mum into gold. Theoretically, transmu-
tation is at hand. Will a method OF
producing these changes economically
be found, and if so will all our stand
ards of money and economics be upset
because man can produce the rarest
metals at will? An expectation OF such
a result is not more visionary than to
have supposed that the Hertzian waves
would ever give us radio and televislon. y
The idea of flying without wings, ad-
mittedly. still is very visionary. Hardly
a beginning has been made in that dl-
rection. But, says Mr.. Morrison, what
is gravity, how fast does it travel and
can it be neutralized? Will the phil
osophy of the world again be changed
by new discoveries here and the aviator
find himself outfitted with no wings at
all?"
There may lie Just over the boundary
of the future" he continues, startling
discoveries Of new materials. Synthetic
chemistry's hugely expanding possibili-
ties hardly have been visioned yet. We
already know something about approx
imately 10 times as many possible prod
ucts of chemical industries as we can
use. The number of potential synthetic
chemicals of which we yet know nothing
at all reach astronomical proportions
very quickly. In a single series of COM
pounds of carbon with hydrogen of the
type chemically known as paraff1ns.
which make up our natural gas and
petroleum, calculation shows that there
Alc CIACC pOoSlUlc
made up of 20 carbon atoms and AZ
hydrogen atoms. Each Of these myriads
of possibilities may be found invaluable
for some human purpose and be some
day synthesized for our use"
Recent researches, he stresses, are
opening the way for the growth of food
crops without the customary soil: The
possibilities Of an agriculture based on q
totally synthetic environment in which
light, heat and nutrition are supplied
as needed make it possible to look for
ward to the day when the worlds food
supply will be produced Independent
of weather and free entirely Of the
ravages of insects and other pests. He
looks ahead to the day when "city blocks
will serve the purposes now requiring
vast rural acreages."
Natures dyes" continues Mr.. Morri-
son, "are comparatively few and of linn
tied usefulness. BY no means are these
varied enough to provide the multitu-
dinous changes of hue which the whims
of fashion dictate and which so greatly
encourage the use of fabrics. The syn
thetic dyes of the chemical industry give
an otherwise impossible variety of hue
"The fabulous cost Of many of the
rarest flower perfumes places them far
beyond the reach of the average person
BY approaching as closely to . natural
I odor ~ possible In q uaan-made mixture
oe scented materials and then adding