Evening star., 1949-03-04
Stars, Men and Atoms
Milky Way Hot Spot
Rays Bombord Earth
Constant Radiation Believed Caused
By Something Like Star
By Thomas r. Henry

| BY Something Like Star
By Thomas r. Henry
| Mysterious "hot spots in the Milky Way
are bombarding the earth with short radio
waves.
The whole galaxy of about 100, 900 900 900
stars, of which, the solar system forms one
unit, constantly is pouring short-wave radi-
| alton into space which can be picked up on
special receivers. This is generally fairly
| uniform from the entire sky.
From about a dozen very small areas,
however. the amount is more than 100 times
greater than the average. The most promi-
nent of these are two in the star constella-
ton CygnuS in the northern heavens.
II the short-wave radiation obeyed the
same laws as heat and light generation,
which in the past has been supposed the
case, the phenomenon would indicate the
presence in these areas of stars and groups
Of stars with temperatures Of billions OF
degrees-a conclusion which, according to
Bureau Of Standards specialists, becomes
utterly fantastic and impossible to accept.
Furthermore, in the areas from which
come the greatest amount of radiation there
are no bright objects. If such objects
existed they would be visible, since there
are no major obscuring dust clouds in the
way. The general idea at present, Bureau
OF Standards experts say, is that the hot
spots are not even stars but something mid
way between a very tenuous gas cloud and
star.
Such an object was discovered a few
years ago by University of Chicago astron-
omers. 1t is classified as the star Epsilon
aurigae, greater in radius than the whole
solar system, with a temperature barely
above the absolute zero of space.
Vat
be in progress in such vast, vacuum-like
aggregation of dust and gas to account for
the great intensity of the radiation. 1t ap-
parently obeys some law as yet unknown.
Study of these hot spots" is one of the
major objects of a commission on microWave
astronomy just set up by the International
Astronomical Union at it's meeting in Zurich.
1t is headed by an Australian, Richard
Wooley, whose countrymen have led in the
discovery of these areas.
The commission also will establish stand
ards for the use of short waves in the study
of meteor showers, the location of the center
of the Milky Way galaxy, and exploration
of the surface of the moon.
Production of new varieties of mushrooms
from five to seven times larger than the
parent species by use of a very mildly radio
dCClV6 compound Ol uranium Has JuSG Deen
reported by DR.. E. c. Stakeman of the Uni
versity of Minnesota.
The new varieties also grow faster and
differ in color from the ordinary commercial
line from which they were obtained, DR..
Stakeman said in a communication to the
National Association for the Advancement
of Science. They were grown in an artif1-
cial medium of potato agar to which small
amounts of the uranium nitrate were added.
uranium, and tests at the Oak Ridge lab
oratory of the Atomic Energy Commission
show that it is very mildly radioactive. The
effects apparently are produced by altera-
ton in the heredity of the dividing fungus
cells by radiation.
DR.. Stakeman, one of the worlds fore
most authorities on fungus diseases Of
plants, reports at the same time production
of radically new strains of corn smut by
the same technique. The work has been
confined to fungi and there is as yet no
evidence that the method will work with
other types of organisms The way may
have been opened, however, to the produc-
ton of desirable new strains in several
types of micro-organlsms.
About two years ago it was proposed that
uranium nitrate be used as a fertilizer.
Agriculture Department experiments at the
time left it's value in much doubt. The
general conclusion was that any observed
effects. could be explained in other ways
but the question has been left open. Reports
of luxurious plant growth on the sites Of
the bombed areas of Hiroshima and Naga-
saki, first cited as supporting the fertility
value of mild radioactivity, since have been
found greatly exaggerated.
The work of Dr. Stakeman and his asso-
ciates may throw new light on the previ-
ously reported phenomena. The radioactive
material does not act as a growth stimula-
tor, per Sc, but produced faster growing
varieties. Production of mutations in higher
plants however. would be much more diff
cult than in the fungi.