Evening star., 1938-12-31
Science
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tipued to grow. They increased in
size quite rapidly, tiny fragment
of root theoretically becoming. IA
miles long in a year. It actually
didn't, Of course, because of the con-
stant discarding process. The secret
appeared to be the nutrient solu-
ton, which contained l part in
10000 of brewers yeast. Without
this the cell cultures would not grow
at all.
Apparently there were two un-
known substances in the yeast es-
sential to the cell reproduction. One
was identified as vitamin B /,
which now is produced synthetically.
The second was found to be one of
the amino acids, into which pro-
teins are changed by the process of
digestion and are one of the forms
in which food is utilized by the body.
This acid was identified ats glycine.
With these two elements, together
with traces of iodine, manganese,
zinc and boron replacing the brew
ers yeast, DR.. White found he had
almost the ideal material in which
to grow isolated roots.
Now a tomato root is rather
complicated structure. Several kinds
of cells enter into its structure. Each
kind has its own particular work to
do. Each kind probably exercises
more or less influence over the
others. 1t is like a well-regulated
community. No particular class of
cell citizens is allowed to get out of
hand. In actual life further restrain
ing influences are eXerted by the
cells of the rest of the plant over
those of the root. There are laws
of growth which keep the cell COM
munity within limits.
Callouslike Growths.
Then DR.. White found his peculiar
tobacco plant. It is new tobacco
hybrid with an extraordinary ten
dency to form callouslike growths
where its stem skin is broken or
scratched. The cells Of these ex-
crescences seemed to be largely un-
specialized, but in the actual plant
they were kept in order by the rest
of the plant cell community. which
has no use for cells with no Job
to do.
But once set free in the ideal nu-
TRENT solution they were set free
from all inhibiting influences of the
tobacco plant community. They were
not, and never became, wood cells,
bark cells, pith cells, leaf cells or
any of the numerous other special
lied kinds of cells which make up
the plant world. They were not
even, strictly speaking, tobacco cells,
but something very close to prime
val plant cells from which, in the
course of a billion years or more,
all the others have been derived.
Very early these unit structures Of
life learned that they must stick
together and do specialized jobs for
each other in order to persist under
the actual conditions of nature, and
out of these combinations Of spe-
cialists has arisen all the magnifi-
cent structure of life.
These cells have nothing to do in
the world except eat and multiply.
Each of them is potentially immor-
tai. 1t does not die but renews its
youth when it has reached its
growth by becoming two baby cells.
1t has no sense of social RESPONSE
bility and hence exerts no inhibiting
effect on any of the others. That
is how life might have developed in
the first place, except for the fact
that cell must eat.
Special Environment Necessary.
In this case DR.. White supplies his
cells with plenty of exactly the sort
of food they desire. They could not
live outside the very specialized en-
vironment he has prepared for them.
That is one reason why they could
never multiply into cosmic mon
ster. Another and even more po-
tent reason is that spheroid could
not grow very large before the cells
in the inside would be unable to alb
sorb food from the medium. They
would starve to death. This is the
great difficulty encountered in
keeping alive gland gratis in hui
mans. It is the most potent reason
why. in natural evolution, cells had
to become specialized so that some
the blood cells, could carry food to
others while still others digested it
and all the others were specialized
in some way or other to serve the
workers. Even cancer cells in ami
mails and plants have more inhibi-
tions upon them than these primi-
tive cells. They, at least, have once
been civilized and gone wild and they
have the active hostility Of the cells
whose food they try to steal.
A lost cousin Of man, a dull-witted
stay-at-home who died young and
comes close to fitting in the place of
the fabulous missing link" was de-
scribed by Prof. William K. Greg
ory and DR.. Milo Hellman Of Co.
lumbia University.
They reported on an intensive
study made by DR.. Gregory in South
Africa this summer on two skulls
and some teeth of a creature who
evidently diverged widely from 60
rillas and chimpanzees in two di-
rections-one toward primitive man
and the other toward the orang-
outangs. Had it survived it would
have been neither man nor ape.
but an Intermediary between them,
Brain Small In Size.
It has q brain smaller than that
OF either gorilla or chimpanSee, but