BATTLE AGAINST TIME.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 70, 4 January 1936, Page 6

BATTLE AGAINST TIME.

SCIENTISTS’ PROBLEM. LONGER LIVES PREDICTED. NEW BRUNSWICK (U.S.), Dee. 2. With increased knowledge, man could go on increasing his life span indefinitely, until he reached the great age, sometimes discussed by scientists, at which he would be “all scars from an accumulation of accidents,” Dr. William Marias Malisoff, editor of Philosophy of Science, said to-night in an address at Rutgers University. Dr. Malisoff discussed the human hope of some day “stopping time,” and went on to declare his belief that men of science may ultimately approach this goal. Under the title “Time and Tide Will Wait,” his talk envisioned a battle between mankind and eternity, which in the post has always ended with the engulfing of men in the vast reaches of time. To-day, however, there is considerable scientific evidence, Dr Malisoff continued, that it is already possible, •in effect, to “stop time for a time,” because of progress in medical science. He explained that he meant by this the stretching of the present ordinary life span by scientific means, and expressed the conviction that it is not visionary to prophesy that the present life may be lengthened. Such a lengthening of life, he continued, would be only a first objective of science, since additional possibilities of extending human existence may be expected as knowledge progresses. He added that in his opinion only a united front of- men of science and the rest of humanity can be successful in attacking the problem. Declaring that no task of research is more important than that of promoting longevity, lie suggested that such research might be undertaken by governments. A better plan, he said, would be to establish a research institute that would finance itself out of income to he obtained from its discoveries. Government laboratories are at present subject to “partisan” influences,, he declared, while private research organisations do not have a •broad enough scope to deal with tho complex problem of lengthening life. Research of this nature, Dr. Malisoff asserted 1 , may be urged as the only investment not subject to the law of diminishing return, since it is impossible at present to conceive of an over-supply of ideas and methods for increasing longevity. Moreover, he said, such research will always be needed* in view of the “inexhaustible” nature of the problem involved.