Evening star., 1938-04-26
UNIVERSE DEATH
DECREE DELAYED
Science Finds Apparent
Contradictions in Basic
Natural Law.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.


Sciences, meeting here today.
This law is the second law of ther-
modynamics, the so-called death SEN
tence Of the universe" 1t DEGREES that
all energy. however distributed in Gre
alton. tends steadily to be distributed
equally. An example is afforded by
heating red hot one end of an iron bar,
such as stove poker. The heat flows
downhill" like water and very soon the
whole bar becomes equally hot.
The same thing is going on through
out the cosmic system. 1t means that
eventually all the heat of the burning
stars will be distributed equally
through every particle of matter in
creation and that all things will be
wrapped in the everlasting cold of
death, since any manifestation of life
Is heat phenomenon.
Different With Life.
The result reported today by Drs.
w. j. Y. Osterhout and j. w. Murray
OF the Rockefeller Institute for Med
ical Research, and which was referred
TO as a new phenomenon Of nature, -
seems to demonstrate that in living
systems this death sentence is greatly
retarded. Water actually runs uphill
and in circles.
All living things are made up OF
cells. Each cell is a distinct structure
with a wall-probably liquid wall, il
developes from these experiments
separating it from all other cells. This
liquid wall has certain unique prop
critics on which the phenomenon OF
life largely depends. Some elements
can pass right through it and get into
the protoplasm of the cell interior
Others pass through much more slowly
and others cannot get through at all
The element potassium passes through
most rapidly, sodium next, calcium
next, and SO on. so that the interior
of the cell gets the proper amounts
OF these elements. The cell wall alsc
has peculiar electrical properties.
The nature of the liquid whose film
forms the cell walls Is unknown. but il
has been demonstrated that it is quite
similar to guaiacol, substance very
similar to carbolic acid, which is usec
IN the treatment of tuberculosis
Potassium, sodium and the like vii
pass through it at the same relative
rates as through a cell wall.
Constructs Life Engine"
With this knowledge DR.. Osterhout
set up queer sort of life engine
He placed some guaiacol in the bottom.
of U-shaped tube In each arm O.
the tube he placed water. The two
would not mix. There were two
columns of water on each SIDE of AZ,
inverted arch of guaiacol Then il,
the left arm Of the tube DR.. Ostenhout
mixed with the water some tri-
chloroacetic acid, similar to but much
more potent than the acetic acid in
vinegar
BY doing so he reduced the "ac-
tivlty" of this column of water Its
freezing point was lowered Theo-
retically if it moved at all it should
have moved toward the pure water
in the right arm, with a higher
freezing point and hence higher "ac-
tiNty." The trichloroacetic acid had
guaiacol in the bottom of the tube
It carried the water with it, right
through into the right arm. There
was an increase Of water in this arm
of as much as 400 per cent. Water
had literally flowed uphill"
What actually happened DR.. oster-
hout says, is that the acid molecules
probably combined with the water
molecules and actually carried them
The acid was flowing downhill. It's
downhill happened to be the waters
uphill Then DR.. Osterhout inverted
another U-tube over the first. The
water in the right-hand column va
porized and passed overhead into the
left-hand column. The acid did not
vaporize. Consequently relatively pure
water would be concentrated on the
left hand and higher and higher
concentration of acid-water on the
left. So the whole phenomenon re-
peated itself.
This interchange can continue over
and over again. The appearance of
perpetual motion and of water running
uphill can be made to continue for
months, DR.. Osterhout said, but all the
time the life clock slowly is running
down. Eventually the acid-water mix
ture on both sides will come into equi-
librium and there will be no more mo-
ton.
To Pursue Experiments.
There is reason to believe, he said,
that an identical or very similar
process takes place in the living cell.
The experiment was designed to shed
light on what actually happens in life
itself, and DR.. Osterhout plans to re-
peat the experiment with the very
large cells of valonia sea plant, as
soon as possible
The great obstacle to a clearer un-
derstanding, he said, is due to the fact
that biologists have gone further than
physical chemists are able to follow
them. The liquid, or semi-liquid, cell
walls of animal cells are a necessary
assumption to explain what takes
place. but they probably never can be
demonstrated. They exist only while
the animal is alive. Once cell is dead
the walls collapse.
Cancer is great group of dis
cases. comparable to the fevers and
nutritional diseases, rather than a sin.
gle disease, with single cause, capable
OF diagnosis by single test and of
cure by single method, DR.. James
Ewing, director Of cancer research at
Memorial Hospital, New York, and one
OF the worlds foremost cancer experts,
told the academy last night.
With the incidence of cancer at the
highest point in history. DR.. Ewing
said, both the public and physicians
are widely mistaken on this point and
confidently look for research labora-
tories to discover a "cure" although
intensive effort for IS years has
brought nothing Of real significance
in this line. Progress. he stressed ran