THE WONDERS OF RADIUM.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 190, 12 August 1919, Page 8

THE WONDERS OF RADIUM.

VAST ENERGY OF MATTER. LECTURE BY PROFESSOR G. OWEN. The second and last of his lectures on tin- properties of radium was delivered by Professor O. Owen, of the Auckland I'niversitv College, in St. Andrews Hall, last night under the auspices of the Auckland Institute. Mr. T. Peacock [.resided. After summarising the facts given in lii~ previous lecture abuut the distinctive physical and chemical properties of radium, including the different rays pro-i-neding from it. and the mysterious raJio-active gats known as "radium emanation." Professor <hven went on to deal with the ilrsintegraiion theory >>i llie transmutation of elements, propounded by *ir Krncst Rutherford and Prof.Soddy. Although the formation of one elemental a result of disintegration of another was considered to have '.leen demonstrated, said the lecturer, the most powerful force* at the disposal ot scientist-; hail entirely failed cither to accelerate or to' retard such disintegration. Referring to the u.-e of radium in medicine, the lecturer said that it liail been applied with some measure of success to the treatment of certain skin diseases, and had been tried as a cure for cancor. Dr. Cullen, a leading Ameri-I can curgeon. had reported that radium rays had apparently cured a small percentage of cases that wore incapable of treatment by operation, that it has prolonged life in others, and that it had re lieved pain and mitigated distressing discharges. In a British journal f>l) cured out of 360 treated were reported to have been achieved. A very important development of the theories about radium, said Profeesor Owen, -was the revelation of almost unbelievable stories of energy in matter. Modern civilisation was dependent on power and energy, tine chief present source of which was coal. Coal existed on the earth in limited quantities, and must become exhausted at no very distant date. Much, possibly, could be done to harness waterfalls, the tides, and the rajs of the sun, but there was the fact that a grain of radium contained as much intra-atomic energy a-s could ordinarily be obtained by burning several ton's of coal. Further, there was every possible reason for believing that what was true of radium was true of matter in all its forms. There was nothing, scientifically improbable in the assumption that a ston.' from the roadside contained enough energy to light Auckland for a week or drive the Niagara across the Pacific. If this man could only unlock this energy, it would be the nio=t stupendous discovery ever made. Professor Owen also dealt with modern theories of the effect, of radium in maintaining the internal neat of the «arth, and with the influence of such theories on estimates of the age of the earth's crust, which was now thought to be possibly 500.000,000 years, which was quite long enough to account for the present elate of organic evolution. It was even that so far from growing coiuer, the earth was accumulating heat in its interior, and that some day this heat mig-ht burnt its "bonds and bring about "file end of the world" in a fashion not previously contemplated by ecience. The lecture was illustrated by lantern elides and a number of interesting experiments.