Hens Made To Lay Radio-Active tggs

Northern Advocate, 6 January 1948, Page 5

Hens Made To Lay Radio-Active tggs

NEW YORK. • Mon. (10 a.m.)—By feeding radio-active phosphorus to hens, they can be made to lay radio-active eggs, according to Dr J. W. Spinks, who is Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He described it as one of the important uses of radio-active by-products of the splitting of the atom.

Radio-active phosphorus, ho said, made it possible to study the hen’s metabilosm by determining' the percentage of phosphorus used in producing eggs and the rate at which phosphorus appeared in different parts of the egg. Canadians were leading the world in the use of radio-active tracers to study fertiliser up-take in wheat. Botanists at Cornell University, New York, also described fertiliser experiments in which lime containing radio-

active calcium is applied to the soil and plants are then analysed for their calcium content. Other experiments are being carried out to discover how rubber trees make rubber and how the trees’ output can be improved. Dr F. A. Long said the cost of producing radio-active materials had been greatly reduced. A quantity of radio-active carbon, formerly costing 51.000.000 now cost only SSO.