Evening star., 1949-01-28
Of Stars, Men and Atoms
Physicists Say Creation
Took Place in 3 Hours
Thesis Offered by Two Scientists of
Johns Hopkins U. Laboratory
By Thomas r. Henry


Creation took place in less than three hours.
1t required between 1000 and 10000 seconds
for all the 90 elements, out of which everything
in the universe is built, to be created out of a
chaos Of elementary particles-protons, neu-
irons and electrons-which were packed to-
gether in . compact mass few billion years
ago.
This is the thesis just presented by Drs R. A.
Alpher and r. Herman Of the Johns Hopkins
University Laboratory of Applied Physics at
Silver Spring
The thesis Is based on the assumption of the
expanding universe, the quite widely accepted
concept that everything In creation-all the
stars and all the galaxies and everything on
them-once was concentrated In q single mass
which suddenly exploded" The present stars
and families Of stars are flying fragments from
this explosion.
Instant Of Explosion.
At the instant Of the great explosion the
heat would have been far too great for any
atom to have remained intact Dr. Alpher
explains. 1t would have cooled down very
rapidly, however, and the atoms constituting
the present known elements would have come
together in time which can be calculated,
Much depends on the lifetime of the "neutron'
the non-electrical radioactive elementary
minutes and half hour. Once the tempera-
ture was right however, the formation of atoms
would have gone on with great speed.
Under this thesis, DR.. Alpher explains, the
relative abundance of the elements can be
explained. The lighter ones would have been
formed most easily and in greatest abundance.
This is generally true from the lightest of all,
hydrogen. to elements Of approximately the
weight OF iron. From this point on the abund-
ance OF heavy elements remains about con-
slant. There are three notable exceptions
the light elements litntum, beryllium and boron.
1t now can be shown, Drs. Alpher and Herman
explain in communication to the Physical
Review, of the American Physical Society, that
these would have degenerated to form helium,
one OF the most abundant of all the elements
in creation but much of which originally con-
tanned in the earth has escaped
third great prehistoric New World cvili-
zation-exceeded only by that Of the Mayas
Of Yucatan and the 1ncas of Peru-is being
uncovered by Columbian Psychologists.
They are carrying out excavations of a great
"city OF the dead" an ancient cemetery of more
than 5 square miles covered with upright, gro-
tesque stone statues Of human forms.
They also are exploring an ancient city with
the stone foundations of more than 5000 dwell
ing houses-probably the second largest city
of the New World before the arrival of the
Spaniards.
They are finding in graves delicately FASH
ioned gold crowns, pendants and earrings.
Smithsonian Told Of Finds
News Of these finds has just been brought to
the Smithsonian Institution here by the di-
rector of the Colombian Archaeological Insti-
tute at Bogota, DR.. Luis Duque Gomez. He now
IL in the United States on an exchange fellow
ship arranged by the State Department
through the Smithsonian Institutions Insti-
tute of Social Anthropology.
The ancient civilization is that of the Cnib-
sas, and their predecessors in Colombia. It's
existence has been known to archeologists for
many years but up to now excavations have
been scattered and cursory and there has been
no appreciation Of its vast extent.
Apparently the Chibsas never reached quite
the heights Of the Mayas or the Incas They
were not very closely related to either, al
though they may have been as close to the
latter as present-day Englishmen are to Rus
slams. They apparently were widely scat
tered people. with different groups developing
in quite different lines
Much work remains to be done, DR.. Duque
emphasizes. The civilization covers q very long
period. The great city. for example, may have
been in existence at the time Of Columbus
first voyage. The great graveyard-around
which there are no ruins indicating human oc.
cupation-is much more ancient and no link
has been found between the two The grave
yard may well have been the burial place of
a nation to which bodies were brought from
hundreds of square miles Of scattered habi-
tatiOnS