Evening star., 1950-12-30
U. 5. in Better Shape
For War Than in 1889,
DR.. Compton Asserts.
By Thomos R. Henry
Science Editor Of The Siur


Science Editor Of The Stor
CLEVELAND, Dec. 80. - The
country is in better shape to meet
the present war threat than it
was in 1889.
This belief was stated by DR.
Karl Compton, former chief >of
the Research and DEVELOPMENT
Board whose function is the as
sessment and development of new
weapons, One present difficulty
he said. is due to the fact that
after the last war nobody fore
saw the possibility of another
struggle SO soon. AS a result the
whole research program was di-
rected to relatively long term de-
velopments intended to produce
new weapons in 10 years or so.
This program. he said, has been
caught in the middle. The present
need Is for intensive concentra-
tion of research on some new
things which are nearing the pro-
duction stage. That Russia really
has atomic bombs there can be
little doubt, DR.. Compton said.
Red Scientists Underestimated.
I'VE have always" he said, "un-
derestimated Russian scientists
They had top-notch men before
the last war and they probably
have more now"
Within year after the discov-
cry OF uranium fission in Janu-
airy, 1899, he said, two major
conferences had been held on its
implications. one in Washington
and the other in Moscow. Thus
he stressed, the Russians got off
to an early start.
The Russian bottleneck, he
stressed, in an interview at the
annual sessions of the American
Association for the Advancement
of Science here, probably is in
pi oduction capacity and engineers,
rather than in scientific research.
Americas best chance against
the Russians. DR.. Compton said,
lies in getting the most superior
weapons that scientists can devise.
We are already greatly out
classed. he pointed out, "in a war
Of counting noses"
There are a lot of high-class
men even In Government bureaus
in Washington who are working
on projects Of no war significance
which could easily be postponed
until the crisis is over.
Wards Off Radiations.
Glutathione, one of the basic
amino acids, essential to life, gives
protection against fatal
radlations such as would come
rom the explosion of an atomic
oomb.
. This was reported to the asso-
citation by three Navy doctors,
comdrs. e. P. Cronkite, George
Brecher and w. H. Chapman of
the Naval Medical Research In
stitute at Bethesda. The sub
stance must be administered. how
ever, before and not after ex-
posure.
The Navy experiments have
been with mice but the same ef-
fects are almo5t certain to be
found In human beings. Un-
treated mice given heavy dose of
radiation had a death rate of ap-
IS percent. This was
reduced tc is per cent in treated
mice getting the same dose. Much
the same effects were obtained
with another amino acid, cystoine.
The life-saving effect has been re-
ported before without any idea of
The reason
The Navy doctors found, they
that the two amino
acids exerted almost their entire
effect on the blood d-forming or
gans, the spleen, the thymus gland
and the bone marrow. 1t is here
hat the white blood cells which
constitute the body's army to fight
III infections, are formed.
The majority of the delayed
1eaths in the bombed japanese
,ities were due to infections which
he body, depleted of white blood
cells killed by radiation, could
lot combat. Studies of the IRA
1iated mice at Bethesda showed
hat the blood system, especially
is defense mechanisms, returned
much more quickly to normal
when the animals previously had
oeen injected with either of the
amino acids. Almost no effect
could be found on other organs.
The findings might have very
great Importance in case of threat
of an imminent atomic bomb
attack