Evening star., 1954-09-22

Form Seas False Floor
sponges Made From Starch
Help to Control Bleeding
By Thomos R. Henry
Vast hosts of microscopically minute
animals constitute the seas false
floor."
During the day they congregate at
the extreme frontier Of the everlasting
night Of abysmal ocean depths where
the light is less than that of q 100-watt
bulb at q distance of half q mile.
This finding concerning the phenom-
enon responsible for the phantom floor
which rises at dusk and falls at dawn,
first discovered by the Navy during
the war, has been reported by Drs.
Brian P. and Elizabeth X. Boden Of
the University Of California.
The nature Of the organisms them
selves remains unknown but they must
be SO small that. as individuals, they
would be barely visible. They also must
be extremely abundant. They first came
to the attention Of science when Navy
navigators, using echo finders to de-
termine sea depths. became confused
when the instruments indicated that
ships were In quite shallow water al
though it was known that this was
not the case. Other measurements
with other sound waves gave q true
bottom at great depths. This false
bottom since has been found In all
the worlds oceans. Sometimes 1t ex-
tends over many square miles.
Minute Animals.
1t was soon determined that the
phenomenon must be due to great
abundance Of living things of some
sort congregated at the depths indi-
Gated by the echoes. There have been
many disputes over what sort of ami
mails constitute the echoing carpet"
The false bottom always disappears
with darkness, or else comes very close
to- the surface. The organisms fee
from light.
A widely accepted theory was that
they were minute creatures of the
squid family. together with larger
animals such as fish which fed upon
them.
The light at the depth of the false
bottom. Mrs. Boden reports, sis prac-
tically invisible. It is at the very Begin
ming of the intensity that a dark
adapted human eye could see. The
animals thus seek deep shade. though
not complete darkness"
Since the end of the war much work
has been done on the layer both in
the interests of navigation and because
it has been suggested as vast potential
food source. Travis in the false-bottom
regions have shown Heterogeneous
mixture OF small marine creatures.
Photographs have shown clouds of tiny
organisms. Sound studies of small un-
derwater explosions have indicated that
larger animals that might have escaped
the travis also often were present.
These were presumed to be fish feeding
on the organisms that constituted the
! clouds"
OFF San Diego.
The BodenS, working with the
Scripp's Institution of Oceanography.
made their discovery during q cruise
in the Pacific off San Diego. They To-
Gated the scattering layer by an echo
sounder and then lowered into 1t a
special light meter that is sensitive to
light intensities as low as a ten-mil-
lionth of a foot-candle. A 100-watt
light bulb emits 16 foot-candles at a
distance of 10 feet.
Throughout the day the instrument
was lowered and raised to maintain a
steady reading of the same value. The
experiment ended at nightfall. The
record of the depths reached by the
light meter then was plotted against
the depth of the scattering layer as
shown by the echo soundings. The
curves were virtually identical.
The two scientists now plan to follow
up their work by separating the color
components of the light reaching the
layer. If they are able to prove that
the creatures respond directly to
changes in the intensity of one color
they may have clue to their identity.
Synthetic Sponges made Of starch,
developed by the Agriculture Depart
ment's northern regional research lab
oratory, promise to play an important
role in surgery, in foods, and as new
market for farm products
The starch sponge was known more
than century ago and then completely
forgotten, accordingg to a laboratory
announcement. A cooked paste Of COM
mercial starch made from corn, wheat
or potatoes is cooled to about 3 degrees
Fahrenheit, quickly thawed and pressed
to remove most Of the free water.
It then quickly expands in the form Of
a sponge. The greatest use appears to
be in surgery. Its outstanding advan-
tage, say the laboratory chemists, is
that 1t dissolves completely in blood,
body fluids or tissues. 1t can be used for
internal dressings, for example. There
never is any need to reopen an incision
to remove it. Body chemicals break the
starch down to simple sugars that are
rapidly absorbed, and used as tissue
nourishment.
Controls Bleeding.
The starch sponge has been found
especially valuable in controlling bleed
ing. This is due to its great number of
cell-like spaces which expose a large
surface area to the shed blood, to me-
chanical obstruction of the blood vessels
as the sponge swells, and to the break
down of the sugar products-released as
the sponge dissolves - which cause
clumping Of red blood cells and speed up
clotting.
Anti-biotics can be added to the
starch paste before it is converted to
sponge form, or they can be absorbed
by the dry sponge before it Is put into
deep wound or surgical incision.
Formed on gauZe backing, thin layers