Evening star., 1938-11-15
OF STARS,
MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress
in Field, Laboratory
and Study.
By Thomas K. Henry.

BY Thomas r. Henry.
Finding of IL rare earths-some Of
them about the most scarce elements in
creation-in the ashes of plant leaves
has just been reported by the Bureau of
Standards.
For some time past the Department
of Agriculture's Bureau of Chemistry
and Soils has been studying the chemi-
cal composition OF plant leaves. Usually
everything can be accounted for by the
complex tests employed. The leaves of
one hickory tree, however, yielded resi-
due which was too difficult to analyze
by strictly chemical methods.
At the Bureau of Standards it was
analyzed by means of the spectroscope
which splits up into its different wave
lengths the light given of by sub
stance when it is made luminous. Each
element has its own characteristic wave
lengths. There is no duplication.
1t was found that the battling sub
stance was made up almost entirely of
rare earths These constitute group
VA AZ ouU VI VIC UdolC C1ClllSllLS
from which everything on earth is made
up. They are found in tiny amounts
widely distributed in the earths crust.
They also have been found in plant
and animal tissues, but usually in
amounts nearly too small to identify.
The concentrate of the hickory leaves,
however, constituted Wo-tenths of one
per cent OF the total dry weight. Tests
also were made on birch and black
raspberry leaves grown in the same gen.
eral locality, for the only way plant
could have obtained the rare elements
was by absorption from the earth.
The following elements were detected: :
Scandium. yttrium, lanthanum, cerium,
praseodymium, neodymium samarium,
europium, gadolinium, terbium, dys-
prosium, erbum and ytterbium. The
remaining three rare earths. holmium,
thullium, and lutecium, were not de-
tected in any of the samples.
During the past few years plant physi-
ologists have realized that presence in
the soil Of very tiny minimums of va
rious elements is necessary for the life
and health of plants, but that a Slight
excess of the required elements may be
poisonous. The fact that plants have
the capacity of selecting these extremely
rare elements from the soil indicates
that several of them may be necessary
for its growth. Further studies are
planned to clear up this point.
One of Albert Einstein's colleagues at
Princeton's Institute of Advanced Stud
les, where the world greatest mathema-
ticians have gotten together, started out
a few months ago to construct mathe-
matical formula to beat the game Of
poker.
He succeeded up to a point-that is
so far as simple bluff between two play
ers is concerned with two flve-card
hands dealt face down and no draw.
BY his formula. which takes into ac-
count all possible distributions of cards,
the man who knew 1t could always win.
But when third player was intro
duced, the mathematician found, the
problem grew altogether too complex for
the most intricate mathematical meth
ods known. And he found also that the
difficulties of draw and stud, even with
only two players, were insurmountable.
So when anybody claims to have a
system" don't believe him.
One way of bringing up children
among the intelligentsia is to pay no
attention to them when they try to
show off,
A professor at Southern college with
liberal traditions has five-year-old twins,
a boy and girl. They run around the
house naked and nobody comments
about it in their hearing.
One night he held dinner party. The
children, who had been put to bed, sud-
denly appeared in the dining room. The
professor and his wife cautioned the
guests not to notice them. They COM
piled, and tried to go on talking as if
nothing had happened.
II told you So" said the little boy to
his sister. "Mama's vanishing cream
really does work."
And now they say not to make children
afraid of the dark
That wasn't the pious idea of the man
who wrote the first book for children
in America. which has just been secured
for the rare book collection of the Lii
brary of Congress.
1t was printed in Boston in 1899 and
written by the father of large family,
the well-known Rev. Cotton Mather Of
witch burning fame.
'It won't be long" he wrote to scare
bad boys and girls, before We go down
into obscure darkness, even utter dark
ness. God has reserved for you the
blackness of blackness forever"