Evening star., 1948-03-05
Stars, Men and Atoms is
Science Finding Exchonee
With Russia Is One-Sided
Moscow Holds Back Research Reports
In Chemistry and Physies
Ry Tkomas r. Hsnry

By Thomas X. Henry sgaia
Exchange Of scientific Information 4 all
sorts between the United States and Russia
has been decidedly one-sided for the past year.
Apparently NO Russian journal dealing with
researches IN the vital sciences OF physics and
chemistry of . later issue than December, 1s4S.
has been received IN Washington, although
reasonably up-to-dats tiies Of American jour
mails have been sent to Moscow.
THE Soviet Academy Of Sciences, which has
continued with little ostensible change from the
old Imperial Academy Of Sciences, publishes
great deal. Up to last year complete Ales Of
the various journals reasonably up to date were
received here. The iron curtain went down
about the nrst Of last year. Several shipments
have been received since by Government
scientific bureaus but all have carried lo4S
dates. Copies Of all Government scientific pub
Ecations and those Of many universities still
are furnished to the Russians through the
Soviet Society for Cultural Relations, which
presumably distributes them to appropriate
institutions In the Soviet Union.
Abstracts Of Reports.
The majority of the Russian journals carry
brief abstracts Of their research reports in
English. French or German. The major and
most general publication, however, Is entirely
III WeSteIu GuIOQGdA lAukuA&eb, C1ltckiy
lish or French. This Is the ''Doklady," or Jour-
nal of the Soviet Academy. It's form has not
changed since imperial days.
How free the Russians have been with the
information can be gathered from the .1s4s hls
Of Doklady at the National Museum, There
are three reports on researches which might
have = rather close relationship to atomic
hssion, but all are highly theoretical. Prob
obi 1u fha al iHno az {s he
tive meson" by P. I. Lukirsky Of the Institute
of Theoretical Geophysics. Nelson's are the
mysterious. short-lived particles Of from 200
to 400 times the mass OF electrons. which are
produced by cosmic ray bombardment Of the
atoms of the outer atmosphere. An under
standing of them, 1t has been widely specu-
lated, would 60 far to explain the mechanisms
of the nucleus itself and be key to much
more efficient nssion. Some carry positive,
others negative electrical charges. Lukirsky
tells of tests on high mountaintop from which
he deduces that the negatively charged meson,
which he believes has about $50 times the
mass of an electron, Is captured at great
heights by atmospheric atoms and causex their
radioactive disintegraton.
report from v. s. Shpinel of the Dniepro-
petrovsk Metallurgic Institute describes the de-
sign of . new and, he believes, greatly I'M
proved mass spectrometer Of the general type
used in separating the isotopes Of uranium
to obtain material rich In the fashionable
Uranium 235. j.
Tells Of Helium Study. ,s -..s
A. Mescheryakov tells of efforts to obtain
from helium derived from oil wells samples
of the hypothecated isotope Helium 5. The
properties OF this gas might be highly sig
niicant in an understanding Of nuclear mech
ansms. He did not succeed, however. ana
postulates that If the elusive substance exists
it is in ratio Of one part to hundred trillion
of ordinary helum and has q lifetime of only
about q quintillionth Of second. There was
some evidence however, that it may exist for
this infinitesimal period before breaking
up into a neutron and an alpha particle.
That is about all Doklady contains in twelve
issues even remotely related to atomic energy
Most of the papers deal with rather abstract
mathematics and regional geology and biology.
Much space is given over to theory Of the
formation of the earth and other planets adj
vanced by the distinguished Russian sstron-
omer o. ]. Schmidt. He postulates that at
some time the sun passed through cloud OF
meteors, and carried q lot of them along with
it through its gravitational attraction. Some
Of them eventually smashed into the sun st.
self, giving it push that accounts for its
present slow rotation of about two hlometers
q second. The sun is the only star Of its
class that rotates on Its axis, DR.. Schmidt
| says. The rest of the meteoric material finally
was drawn together to form the present planets.
| But more than this slender information about
the occupation Of Russias great minds Is not
forthcoming and one looks in vain for any
| ;ot.