Evening star., 1949-02-21
Stars, Men and Atoms
Fat Now Can Be Injected
Successfully Into Blood
California u. Experiments Indicate
That Body Assimilates Energy
By Thomas X. Henry

BY Thomas X. Henry
Fat. one of the three primary essentials
Of diet can be fed by injections into the
blood stream.
This hitherto highly questionable POSSIBLE
ity has been demonstrated in experiments
just reported to the American Association
for the Advancement of Science by DR.. 8. r.
Lerner and his associates of the University
of California.
They made use of GA. one of the explod-
ing forms of the element carbon which Is
produced in the atomic furnaces of the
Atomic Energy Commission. Fats are highly
complex substances made up of a great
variety of carbon compounds known at fatty
acids
One of the most important of these is
palmitic acid which the University of Cali
fornia scientists were able to produce SYM
thetically. They incorporated the C14 atom in
its molecule. With this as basis they syn
thesized one of the simplest forms Of fat and
injected it into the veins of rats.
Fat ordinarily occurs in large particles
which could not be put in the blood stream.
This difficulty was overcome by splitting the
fat into particles less than billionth OF an
inch in diameter by subjecting 1t to super.
sonic radiation.
Fat Goes Into Energy.
They found that the animals were using
the injected fat in almost precisely the same
way as if they had eaten it. After two
hours the counters began to pick up the
characteristic C14 radiations in the carbon
dioxide of the expired breath. This meant
that some of the fat was being burned" to
provide heat and energy for the body. In
"a hours about half was used in this way.
The rest it was found, had been stored in
the liver as reserve supply-one of the
functions n
The experiments mark step forward to
the goal. still far from attained. of feeding
a complete diet through the veins.
Il II
The human is tough organism.
His bones are fourth as strong as cast
iron and twice as strong as hickory They
can stand compression of $4,000 pounds a
square inch. They can stand Is times the
pull of gravity for tenth of second. long
enough to bail out of an airplane.
These determinations have been made in
efforts to determine the protective devices
necessary for the present high-speed fighter
aircraft which already seem close to the
limit of human endurance. That may prove
the bottleneck of high-speed flight. accord
ing to DR.. John T. Rattaliata Of the Illinois
Institute of Technology who is carrying out
several studies of the problem.
Cockpit Heat Is Problem.
major problem is heat IN the cockpit.
Without cooling, the temperature at $40
miles an hour-the official world record
would approximate 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
The solution. said the jet propulsion expert,
is refrigeration. In an attempt to approach
livingroom conditions of temperature and
pressure. 16-pound unit has been developed
at the Illinois Tech 1abora tories which blows
cold air on the pilot. This unit contains
small turbine with rotor one-and-a-half
inches in diameter and weighing half
ounce. 1t turns at 100000 revolutions .
minute, > ,''
More serious is the problem OF baflins out
with parachute. German experiments dur
ing the war revealed that bail-outs' at exc
tremelyahigh speeds were disastrous To 6'pnots.
At speeds of 500 miles an hour the corners
of their eyes and mouths were torn and their
ears literally were ripped off their heads.
Various ejector mechanisms still fall far
short of answering the problem.