Evening star., 1950-01-16
Tiny Particles in Clouds
Change Vopor to Snow
20-Month Study Shows as Many
AS 100000 to Cubic Inch
By Thomas K. Henry

Particles a millionth of billonth the
weight of grains of sand change clouds to
snow.
They come from dust and smoke swept
into the high atmosphere. normal concen-
tration is from 900 to 10000 cubic inch.
Sometimes, however, the number reaches as
high as 100000 900.
This is the finding of General Electric Co.
engineers from 20-month study carried
out on the top of Mount Washington, NJ H..
in cooperation with the Office of Naval Re-
search and the Army Signal Corps. The
object was to determine further the feaSi-
bility of seeding clouds with similarly mi
mute particles to produce precipitation. They
apparently are necessary. as nuclei for the
condensation of water vapor. More than
1000 tests were made with highly ingenious
apparatus developed by the engineers to
count the particles.
Originate in West.
The Mount Washington experiments, ac-
cording to the General Electric Co. report
showed that major source of these parti-
cles is the Great Plains region and the arid
regions adjacent to the Continental Divide
Wind storms carry the tiny nuclei into the
sky where they may be transported thou
sands of miles. Soil from the dust bowl
regions of the West is deposited in snow and
rain over New England.
The average size OF such particle is less
than millionth of an inch and some may
be much smaller. They still, however. are
molecules.
far-reaching effort to clear up the
role of hormones in cancer has been started
by the Public Health Services National
Cancer Institute.
1t has long been known that estrogen.
one of the female sex hormones, is capable
of causing cancer in mice. 1t may do the
same in humans. Yet obviously, since it
is a normal constituent of the body, there
must be some natural protection against it.
Specialists suspect that the protection is
provided by the liver which, in some way,
is able to reduce the potency of the hor-
none. The investigators will make scientific
use of sections of human liver which have
been removed in surgical operations, both
for cancer and other diseases. The slices
will be supplied with estrogen and related
hormones in order to determine whether
those from caneer and non-cancer pa
tients differ in ability to make the sub.
stances inactive.
Liver Deficiency Seen.
A clue comes from the fact that liver
sections from women with cancer of the
Woup ldueu 10 make eSCrO8en inactive.
Thus it may be that many cancers of
women may be due to a liver deficiency.
In the study at the University of Cali
fornia, supported by the National Cancer
Institute. rats will be injected with pure
growth hormone from the pituitary gland.
Previous studies have led to the suspicion
that such injections will cause tumors. The
experiments will be repeated on a more
extensive scale with both normal rats and
animals from which the pituitary has been
removed.
At the st. Louis School of Medicine a
tracer study will be carried out on the
effects OF cortisone, the extremely scarce
hormone from the adrenal glands, which
recently has been reported to relieve ar
Thrills. The hormone will be tagged with
radioactive carbon and traced through the
bodies of experimental animals. Apparently
only about 10 per cent is excreted.