Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-03-23
Deeper Into the Atoms Heart

The Bevatron-the giant demonstrating
machine that has just been unveiled at the Uni
verSity of California-is a highly technical in
Strument whose operations are too complicated
to be readily understood by most of us. But it
has simple and altogether comprehensive
purpose: It has been brought into being and put
to work to open up new frontiers of knowledge
in the great areas of nuclear science that still
remain to be explored.
AS of today, although it has been harneSsed
for things like weapons and submarine propul-
sion, the atom continues to be a mystery in
many respects Scientists, despite all their
achievements with it up to now, have done little
more than scratch the surface of its vast po-
tentialities. AS pointed out by DR.. Ernest o.
Lawrence director of the laboratory running the
Bevatron 1--WE are still far from an understand
ing of the forces and processes that govern the
atomic nucleus" Hidden secrets have yet to be
uncovered in that dark field and when they are
as they probably will be-there will be far
reaching new advances in human society.
It is for this reason that the Bevatron,
whose construction has been paid for with SO
million from the Atomic Energy Commission,
has been put in operation. Described as the
worlds most powerful particle accelerator, it
makes all the cyclotrons of the past seem puny
by comparison. Even the CoSmotron-WhoSe
debut at the Aces Brookhaven National Lab
oratory in 1852 was hailed as historic devel-
opment precursing the advent of a new era in
physicS-looks somewhat minor beside it. For
this new machine already has succeeded in
acceleratng protons (the nuclei of hydrogen
atoms) to an energy of billion electron volts
the greatest thing of its kind ever achieved by
a man-made device-and further experiments
with it are expected to generate energies up to
6.25 billion electron volts.
fho oct inrifu nf
seem to be abStruse and abstract to the point
of being utterly impractical But the fact is
that our various types of cyclotronS and the
big Cosmotron have long since contributed to
A-weaponS development and other progress in
ways that are still being kept secret for reasons
OF security. And the same sort Of results though
probably even greater ones, can be expected
from the Bevatron. At any rate, as DR.. Law
renee has said, it will enable us to dig into the
secret heart of the atom to depths that have not
been possible heretofore, and every time we
have thus extended our nuclear research we
have gained important new information for
practical military and military applications.
Acc Chairman Lewis L. Strauss has effec-
lively enlarged upon this point with these
words: "Nuclear progress is not simply a matter
OF building power plants and weapons with
present knowledge. 1t is even more a matter
of learning, for future use, what we do not yet
know about the atom. For, just as we ushered
In the atomic age with knowledge that had been
obtained years before, so tomorrowS practical
nuclear developments for the support of free
dom and peace will arise from the foundations
OF knowledge we build today. America cannot
afford to leave any frontier of nuclear science
unexplored."
That is why the Bevatron is functioning
today. The investment of money and brains in
1t is almost certain to yield rich dividends
including possibly even the secret of how to
convert fluid energy into inert, concrete matter
on large scale, just as we now convert matter
into controlled and uncontrolled energy like
electricity or hydrogen explosion.