Evening star., 1953-01-28
Outer Edge Reached
In Cosmic Energy Hunt
'Cosmotron' Built to Shoot
Into Insides of Atoms
By Thomos R. Henry

tutU iHStuSS OI AtOmS
By Thomas R. Henry
Physicists have reached the outer
edge of cosmic energy, and with 1t the
possibility of getting new kinds of energy
from the inside of the atom which
eventually may dwarf in significance
the atomic energy known today.
At the Atomic Energy Commissions
Brookhaven National Laboratory on
Long Island a "coSmotron' has been
constructed which will shoot protons,
the inf1nitesimally minute, electrically
neutral, hard primary particles of mat
ter, into the insides of atoms with
energies Of more than two billion volts.
While working on this atom smaSher,
a sort of super-cyclotron, the Brook
haven physicists made the exciting
discovery" according to the commits
sion's semiannual report, of means
of constructing at reasonable cost
machine that will produce fiftyfold as
much energy or 100 billion volts.
The outer atmosphere of the earth
constantly is being bombarded by cos
mic rays. They are elemental particles.
probably protonS, which come out of
about hundred billion volts to bill
lion billion volts Where they come from
nobody knows-perhaps originally from
the great universe of star systems OUT
side the Milky Way galaxy. And this
galaxy of about billion billion stars
may have acted as titanic cyclotron,
whirling them around with ever greater
and greater energies for billions OF
III kIaA nxyk.
levels of the atmosphere of this planet.
Few Ever Get Through.
Their total radiation energy is about
equivalent to that of all the starlight
on an autumn night. They may con-
stitute an insuperable obstacle to mans
ever leaving the earth for interplane-
tary flight Few, if any, of them ever
get through to the earth's surface.
Otherwise life would be very hazard
Gus.
They hit atoms of the high-atmos-
phere gases. These are smashed and
from them come a strange new kind
of elementary particle in bewildering
variety of sizes. These are the
"mesons," known only in the past few
years, although brilliantly predicted by
the japanese physicist Yukawa just
before the war. They are the most
exciting things in preSent-day physics.
They are energy transformed mo-
mentarily into matter-like the wind
into grains of sand. According to the
theory of relatively, mass and energy
are equivalent and can exchange forms.
This is the meaning of the basic rela-
tivity equation promulgated by EinStein,
= NC, E being the energy in ergs
which is equivalent to any mass OF
material, in grams, multiplied by the
square of the velocity Of light in cent?
meters per second. The figure for q
grain of sand, of course, would be
super astronomical.
That matter can become energy IL
now common knowledge. It is the
whole basis of the atomic bomb. In the
fission of an atom an extremely minute
fraction of the mass of that atom
becomes energy. Man has not hitherto
had the power to produce the opposite
reaction.
The nucleus of any atom. except for
the simple gases hydrogen and helium.
is composed of numerous elementary
particles-protons, neutrons and per-
haps a few others-held together by
some enormous force--a force which
has been calculated at more than a.
uuadrillion times the force OF gravity.
between particles of equivalent size.
This is the cement Of the nucleus"
the basic thing that holds creation
together.
Now, when a nucleus is smashed with
sufficient force-that is, the force OF
cosmic particles-part of this force
becomes briefly particles of matter. 1t
was not matter when it was in the
nucleus. It is not matter again an
infinitesimal fraction of time later.
Entering Lower Limits.
With the new Brookhaven apparatus.
if it works as predicted, it will be pos
sible to produce some of the unknown
particles at the earth's surface and
study them. Admittedly, reaching 100
billion volts is only entering the lower
limits of cosmic energy, but hitherto 1t
has been impossible even remotely to
approach it. The coSmotron potentiali-
ties are those to be expected at relative
ly low levels of the high atmosphere.
Hitherto it has been possible to study
the reactions only by automatic devices
attached to rockets which can remain
In LQ6 COSLIllC-Tdy TcSlOIl O1ly q NCAy
brief time The Navy now has an exten.
sive project for making such observa-
tions with apparatus placed on an un-
manned balloon which can remain in
this region for several hours.
Nobody knows the possible practical
significance of man-produced mesons
or what will happen when mesons
smash into atomic nuclei. The fact re-
mains that power is taken out Of the
atom in the form of particles which
pack tremendous amount of it instead
of the minute amount gotten by atomic
fiSSion.
Some Of the significance attached to
the matter may be conjectured from the
fact that the Atomic Energy Commis-
sion places the possibilities developed
at Brookhaven at the top Of the scien-
tific achievements Of its laboratories
during the year.
Questions and Answers