ADVANCE IN SCIENCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 100, 8 February 1936, Page 5

ADVANCE IN SCIENCE.

BIG CLAIMS BY AMERICANS. HEAT, ASTRONOMY AND RELATIVITY. (United Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.5 a.m.) NEW YORK, February 7. Three scientific achievements, of more than passing interest were announced from three American universities to-night. The physics laboratory of the North-Western University of Chicago announced: The generation of heat of 12,000 dog. Fahrenheit, by means of an electric arc. This is believed to be the hottest temperature in any place in the universe, and was achieved while outside the laboratory.. Sub-zero temperatures prevailed in an unprecedented cold wave. The- Harvard University indicated the identification of a double eclipsing of the star 29 Canis Majoris, visible to the naked eye in the southern sky, under Sirius near the constellation of Orion, as the heaviest star in the heavens. Its diameter is 4000 times that of the earth and it is 40,000,000 times as heavy. It is 20,000 light years away from the earth, and is composed of two giant bodies revolving about one another, and hiding one another at regular intervals. Finally, at Yalo University, Professor Leigh Page announced a- new theory of relativity, broadening the foundation of Professor Einstein’s original special theory of relativity of 1905, and unlike the latter which applied itself to motions of celestial bodies, applies itself to the atom and “offers the hope of acquiring a better understanding of motions occurring therein.” More specifically the new theory leads to the possibility of types of motion, not even dreamt of by Professor Einstein. Otherwise this theory is so intensely mathematical that it is hopeless to explain it in plain language.