Evening star., 1939-12-31

Pioneer in Development
Of New Plants Succeeds
DR.. Cannon of Harvard
BY the Associated Press.
COLUMBUS, O., Dec. 30.-A pio-
neer in the development of entirely
new farm and decorative plants
today was elected to the presidency
of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
DR.. Albert F. Blakeslee, geneticist
of the Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y,
laboratory of the Carnegie Institu-
ton of Washington will succeed
DR.. Walter B. Cannon of Harvard
University at the meeting of the
association in Philadelphia in De-
cember, 1910.
The research work which brought
the honor to DR.. Blakeslee has been
primarily concerned with the in
heritance of plants. He has. how
ever, also done extensive investiga-
ton on the difference of taste and
smell sensations in human beings
and found that these senses differ
between individuals as greatly as do
the sensitivity to light or feeling
Put to Commercial Use.
DR.. Blakeslee's outstanding recent
work was the discovery that by
treatment of plants with colchcine,
chemical used for the treatment
of gout, would in a large number
of cases double the number of
chromosomes in the plant, Great
ing a true-breeding new species.
This discovery, only of academic
interest two years ago. since has
become of great commercial i'm
portance. The United States De-
partment of Agriculture and
number Of other research organiza-
tions Immediately put it to practical
use in the development of new
plants and flowers, some of which
are now becoming available for
public use
DR.. BlakeSlee's discovery also
opened up new possibilities in the
treatment of some types of cancer
which are resistant to X-ray The
drug stops the process of cell divi-
sion just before the organism splits
into two parts Then by the appli-
cation of X-rayS the growth Of
such wild cells is stopped COM
pletely.
Vice Presidents Elected.
The association also elected the
following vice presidents to head its
various sections during the coming
year:
Mathematics, A. B. Coble of Ur-
bana. ILL.,; physics, A. L. Hughes of
ST. Louis, Mo; chemistry, George
Scatchard of Cambridge, Mass;
astronomy, Robert R. McMath of
Detroit, Mich; geology and geogra-
ply. Hugh D. Miser of Washington,
D. c.; geological sciences. L. J. Cole
of Madison. Wis; botanical sciences,
NJ L. Fernald of Cambridge, Mass;
anthropology, w. Duncan Strong of
Washington, D. c.; historical
sciences, Chauncey D. Leake of San
Francisco, Calf: engineering. Rob-
ert L. Sackett of State College, Pa:
medical sciences, Pau! R. Cannon of
Chicago, Ill; agriculture, w. H.
Chandler of Berkeley. Calf.
Section Committeeman.
The following section committee
men were elected:
Mathematics, ]. L. Walsh of Cam
bridge, Mass; physics. George r.
Harrison of Cambridge, Mass;
chemistry. Ross A. Gortner of ST.
Paul, Mimi; astronomy, D. B. Nc
Laughlin of Ann Arbor. Mich;
geology and geography, John L.
Rich of Cincinnati, Ohio: geological
sciences, H. H. Plough of Amherst,
Mass: botanical sciences, W. J. Rob-
bins of Columbia. Mo; anthropology,
F.. M. Settler OF Washington, D. c.;
social and economic sciences, STAN
ley D. Dodge of Ann Arbor, Mich;
medical sciences. l.. R. Dragstedt OF
Chicago, Ill; historical sciences,
Tenney l.. Davis of Cambridge,
Mass; agriculture, w. A. Albrecht
of Columbia. Mo.
Members elected to the executive
committee of the council were Karl
T. Compton of Cambridge, Mass,
and R. E. Clausen, Berkeley, Calf.
Council members elected were:
Arthur H. Compton of Chicago,
Ill: and Austin H. Clark of Wash
ington, D. c.
Mr.. Clark, who directed the press
service of the association for Is
years. is one of the few American
scientists honored by knightship by
a foreign government. A year ago
he received from the Danish gov
ernment the designation as a Knight
of the Order of Dannebrough for
MS research work in oceanography
which took him from the Arctic to
the Antarctic and around the world
on numerous expeditions.
DR.. Compton is Nobel prize VIM
ner in physics.