Evening star., 1940-05-11
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field. Laboratory
And Study

IN reid. Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.
In the pleasant Berlin suburb Of
Dahlen, about I'VE miles southwest from
the center Of the city. is group Of 30
or 20 two-story, stucco-nnished buildings
with lawns and gardens interspersed
among them.
This is the brain center Of the universe
or was until Adolf Hitler drove from
the country or threw into concentration
camps It's most distinguished workers.
Out Of this group Of buildings in the past
80 years have come some Of the most rev.
olutionary discoveries In the history Of
human thought.
It Is the Kaiser wilhelm Institute, de-
voted up to now to research In pure sci.
ence. It has heightened mems lives and
immeasurably Nghtened their burdens.
There is hardly person living who is
not indebted to 1t. It Is the glory Of the
German race.
Several hundred scientists are EN-
ployed there. There is q persistent, but
naturally unveriiable, rumor among
American physicists that these men have
been ordered to devote their exclusive
attention to finding some way Of ex-
tracing from pitchblend the precious
actino-uranium.
It would be military assets Of the
first order. II theory actually works In
practice. A few pounds Of 1t would be
enough to keep submarine, or even .
battleship. fueled indefinitely. Its value
in airplanes almost certainly would be
enormous. 1t is hardly possible to i'm
agtne more potent secret weapon" Of
which Hitler sometimes boasts. It would
never be. one may be reasonably certain.
material for bombs. Even II 1t would
work 1t would be far too expensive to
waste in such way.
The stan Of the Kaiser Wilhelm Insti-
tute are brilliant men. It Is far from
impossible that one Of them will hit upon
some scheme Of separating actino-
uranium from ordinary uranium in ap-
preciable quantities and that he will
start In it the vital chain reaction that
might change the face Of the earth.
When he does 30 he is doomed. He
will be dead within two or three days.
the first human sacrifice on the altar of
his own strange discovery. He win, the
chances are, be q brave man who will
devote his agonized dying hours to max
ing q complete record Of his revolution
ary experiment. The mans body will be
riddled with x-rays Of such penetrating
power that he will essentially be burned
alive. Also everybody else at the Kaiser
Wilhelm Institute runs fair chance Of.
suffering the same fate. The deadly
rays will permeate the whole neighbor-
hood. The great scientific institution
may be the first victim Of its own BRAIN
child.
There is only one way, American
physicists say. that the starter Of the
chain reaction might escape his fate.
He might work by remote control appa-
ratus, himself in q cubicle surrounded
by hollow walls 20 to 80 feet thick and
flled with water. It is highly improb-
able that any such precautions will be
taken. They would. at the best, be ex-
tremely inconvenient. The man win
have no means Of knowing when the
moment Of success will arrive.
Two questions naturally cause Amer
ican physicists some bad dreams. How
close are the Germans to solving the
problem. They had the first chance at
1t. They muffed it. If Hitler had let
Lise Mintner alone he might have had
exclusive possession Of the whole field Of
actino-uranium utilization. Instead 1t
came to the United States.
But did they mum 1t? Maybe they saw
the possibilities and were working QUIET
" all the time. II 50 they may have
head start and know q lot more than
ever has been revealed. This is highly
doubtful. For one thing they have not
the necessary apparatus.
Otherwise here in America the physi.
cists are six months ahead of the Ger.
mans. Up to date everything has been
published freely in American scientific
JSAAAA0Acs &44VACA 3 6ClSl1LlSLS nave Cne
advantage Of everything which has been
accomplished here. But the Americans
feel that II they cannot keep ahead with
six-month start they had better 70
out Of business anyway. They will be
little more chary Of information in tho
future.
The second question is: What will Hit
Ter do with atomic energy II he gets It?
1t would hardly be an immediate threat.
1t might require as much as 10 years to
fnd way to use it efficiently and rede-
sign battleships and submarines in order
to take advantage Of 1t.
TITS the next war We have to WORRY
about, not this one," remarked one Of
the American leaders tn the search for
atomic energy.
II the Germans obtain substantial
quantities Of tino-uranium they will
have terrible threat to hold over the
heads Of the allies, but maybe there viii
not be much behind the threat.
Meanwhile the allies may be doinp
something themselves. Very little actiy-
ity in this line has been reported from