Evening star., 1955-01-24
1900 Bottles in Ocean
To Help Mop Currents
Experts Expect vitcI Data
From Recovery Of 800
By Thomos R. Henry

The currents Of the Pacific now are
being mapped with bottles thrown over
board from exploring ships.
Scripps Institution Of oceanography
scientists plan to cast 12,000 into the
sea during the next year. They are
salad oil bottles. each containing Q
precise notation of where it was put in
the water and request that 1t be re-
turned by any finder.
One put In the sea just south Of the
equator near the South American coast
has Just been returned by a Fiiian
native named Iosefo Tanausagrarua
who found It on q beach Of the island
of Vanua Levu. 1t had travelled more
than 1000 miles In less than q year.
Hope to Recover 500.
OF the $4,000 bottles the scientists
believe there is an off-chance as many
as 500 win be recovered. Some will
develop leaks and sink. Others viii be
dashed to bits on rocks or land on re-
mote beaches where there is little
chance that they ever win be re-
covered But when the positions Of
those that are found are charted,
otherwise unobtainable knowlege OF
the drift directions. and hence of the
directions of the currents, will be OBJ
tanned.
Elaborate electronic instruments and
abstruse calculations Of the density of
sea water now tell something about
currents, the oceanographers say. but
the drift bottle--an instrument prob
ably as old as the first castaway--re-
mains one of their most useful tools.
The current systems Of all the oceans.
it is now realized. are far more complex
than was thought In the past. There
are big "rivers in the sea-" like the
Gulf Stream. There also are little
rivers and tributaries of rivers, perhaps
constituting extremely complicated net
works of river systems. These streams
flow at various depths and 1t is practi-
cally impossible to detect them by any
sort of surface observations.
II
Virus Lights "Fires" in Cells.
A new mechanism In cancer forma-
tion--the lighting of millions Of fires
in body cells by virus particles"-has
Just been discovered by Duke Univer-
sity scientists.
Their findings are confined to blood
cancer Of chickens known as erythro-
nyeloblastic leukosis, known to be
caused by specific virus organism, and
may have no bearing on any human
form. On the other hand viruseS are
suspected in several types Of human
cancer. although only in one obscure
case have they been detected.
Basic constituents Of animal cells are
substances known as tri-phosphates.
Each contains three phosphorus atoms.
Normally an engine which is natural
constituent Of the body causes one of
the three phosphorus atoms to burn.
This supplies the energy for muscle con-
traction or nerve conduction. But the
supply of the engine is kept strictly
under control and none is released until
required.
Spreads Rapidly.
Now the virus causing the chicken
cancer, Drs. Joseph v. Beard and Ed
ward A. Eckert of the Duke faculty
have found, contains this same engine.
The virus multiplies very rapidly and
spreads through the blood stream.
Whenever 1t gets into cell it sets one
of the phosphorus atoms afire, far in
excess of any normal needs of the body.
These millions of tiny fires. the Duke
scientists believe. may be the causes
of normal cells changing into malig-
nant ones. Virus theories of the origin
of human cancer have largely been dis
credited because techniques thus far
developed fail to show their presence
in most cases.
A virus now is acknowledged, how
ever. to be the proximate cause of the
rare form of malignant neoplasm known
as condyloma acumilatum. There lie
some possibility that other viruses may
be responsible, directly or otherwise. for
leukemia and breast cancer In women.
viruses, it is pointed out, may have
other means of affecting cells than
starting fires. erhe work OF the Duke
scientists is being supported as pos
sible major lead by the American
Cancer Society.