Evening star., 1949-09-28
Exploding Sugar Farm 4
Started in Oak Ridoe
Studies to Determine How Body
Turns Coal Into Fats and Proteins
BY Thomas X. Henry

By Thomas r. Henry
OAK RIDGE. Tenn, Sept 2S-An ex.
ploding sugar farm has been started here.
Leaves Of sugar beets, beans and sun.
flowers are exposed to an atmosphere in
which the concentration of the life gas,
carbon dioxide. is increased about a thou
sand-fold over the normal three parts in
10000 OF the air. In the molecules of this
gas Is incorporated considerable amount
OF carbon IA, an exploding form of the
carbon atom.
The leaves. even when plucked and placed
IN water, continue for few days to carry
out the fundamental process of photosyn-
thesls which Is the foundation of all life
on earth. They have the ability to take
the carbon dioxide from the air and to
absorb water. When they are Illuminated,
IN either sunlight or strong artificial light,
the oxygen is released from both the water
and gas and the carbon and hydrogen are
combined into various Starches and sugars.
Too Hot to Handle
These are the fuels of life's furnace
With some of the exploding carbon built
into their molecules, they are radioactive.
They can be used to determine how the
body burns its coal and how it incorpo-
rates 1t into fats and proteins
The actual sugar yield at the Oak Ridge
farm is quite small. Out of 100 grams Of
beet leaves, for example, the total sugar
yield is little over a gram and of this
not more than one per cent is radioactive.
Even so, 1t sometimes is too hot to handle"
according to DR.. G. R. Noggle, who is in
charge of the experiment For each 100
grams of leaves the atmosphere is enriched
with microscopically minute amount Of
the exploding carbon dioxide-three milli-
tn
explosions second.
At present DR.. Noggle is stockpiling tho
radioactive starches and sugars When suf-
f1clent amounts are obtained, they will be
led to yeastS and other micro organisms
which will build of them extremely complex
vltamlnS, hormoneS and other bio-chemicals
which cannot be synthesized in the chemical
laboratory.
The isotope farm still is in a pioneer
stage, DR.. Noggle explains, and eventually
he expects to grow the entire plants in the
C14-enriched atmosphere instead of expos
ing leaves for few days.
From the sugar beet leaves he obtains
three kinds of sugar-the ordinary sucrose
OF the table, glucose and fructose. The
latter two are essential in many biological
experiments. These are separated into pure
products. The sucrose. he says, seems to
have the greatest affinity for the exploding
atoms.
Sources Of Starch.
The bean leaves have been found excellent
sources of starch. The sunflowers are pro-
life sources of sugar-like substance called
"inulA' which is closely related to the
sugars and has many uses In biological
laboratories.
The next crop to be grown at the isotope
farm, DR.. Noggles says, will be group Of
desert plants which grow very rapidly and
produce seed in few weeks. These will be
used to, study the effects Of radioactive
photosynthesis on plant behavior and on
the degree to which the exploding atoms
will remain with an organism from genera
ton to generation.
Various substances produced in the plants
have quite different afinities for the radio
active isotopes. Dr. Noggins says. For ex-
ample, when sucrose and several other types
of sugar are being formed in the same.
leaf almost all the radioactivity will bs'
found INCORPORATED in the sucrose