Evening star., 1939-03-30
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
BV Thomas r. Henry.

ANU StuOy
By Thomas r. Henry.
A new basic chemistry of life, which
reduces to order the hitherto apparent
chaos of the protoplasm formed in the
primeval seas and of which all plants
and animals are composed, was promul-
gated this week by Department of
Agriculture physiologist.
Made public only after years of spec
ulation and experiment by DR., Robert
A. Steinberg, this work is expected to
make possible the prediction of now
unknown elements which enter the
chemical life complex, essentially the
same from bacteria to men.
Experiments in the past have shown
that % of the 80 known elements are
essential to all, or some, forms of life
A few of them are among the rares.
of the basic substances of creation, sucn
as the silverlike metal gallium, and
appear in chemical analysis Of living
things only in the ratio Of about one
part to a billion. They are just as
essential to life, however, as such ele-
ments as carbon or phosphorus. Some
of them occur in such minute amounts
that it is impossible to detect them IN
the plant, or animal substance by the
most refined chemical methods.
In the past the search for these has
been purely haphazard, DR.. Steinberg
explains. Thousands of growing tests
have been made on plants and animals
ment or another. The only way 10
tell whether they needed certain ele-
ment was to see what happened if they
did not get it. Nobody could say, for
example, that a growing plant did not
need gold in minute amounts, or that
this element did not constitute basic
chemical constituent of the growth phe-
nomenon.
DR.. Steinberg's thesis is that the
known essential elements fall into a
mathematical series based on the num-
ber and space arrangement of the Or
bital electrons of their atoms. Any
other essential elements to the life COM
pleX which at present are unknown are
expected to fall into this mathematical
series. Hence their structure, and then
identity if they have been isolated, can
be predicted. Actually, DR.. Steinberg
believes, one of the elements necessary
for life is still unisolated The thesis
Is comparable to that of the discovery
OF the periodic table of the elements by
the Russian chemist Mendelejeff in 1871
which reduced the material world to
order and made possible the prediction
of the basic substances that have been
discovered since.
The life elements, DR.. Steinberg
finds, form an atomic family of their
own with peculiar chemical relation
ships between them. Probably three
are to be added to the known men,
bers Of this family which somehow or
other got together about billion and
half years ago and gave rise to lite.
From the experiments of DR.. Steinbere
and others, it now appears that the
known lie elements are necessary for
both plants and animals, which are diff
ferent manifestations of the same ele-
mental stuff, with three exceptions. The
elements chlorine, sodium and iodine an
parently are essential for all animal life
at least in all its higher forms. The
latter enters into the animal protoplasm
complex III very minute amounts, but
when it is entirely removed the animal
cannot exist. Up to the present it has
been impossible to prove that any of
the three are necessary to plant life
They probably are found in all plants
being constituent parts of the earth from
which plant gets its nourishment, but
growth and health probably could con-
tinue without them.
This may mark the great crossroads of
evolution, chemists associated with Dr.
Stelnberg speculate. In some way pro-
toplasm developed more complex mole
cule and from this came animal life
with its capacity for independent move
ment and eventually the development OF
nervous system.
The work may have considerable sig
nificance for agriculture, Department ol
Agriculture chemists explain. Only in
the past few years has the importance
OF so-called trace elements" to plant
lille been demonstrated by experiment
1t is now known that the difference OF
part Of million of some such rare
element as cobalt or molybdenum may
mean the difference between good crops
and failure with certain plants. Dis
covery of the life family will make II
easier to give plants balanced diet.
The thesis was arrived at with the aid
OF physicists of the United States Bu-
reau Of Standards, who are determining
the exact space arrangements of elec-
irons in their orbits and of Department
OF Agriculture chemists. Its complete
confirmation, DR.. Steinberg says, can
come only with the demonstration that
the elements he has predicted actually
are essential to some form of life.