NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18388, 2 May 1923, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

EVOLUTION AND RELIGION.

! > Evolution is now as firmly established a3 I the law )of gravitation, says Mr. - W. ;H. ! P. Faunce, president of Brown University, in the World's Work. "Both are consistent ; with Christianity ; or, Buddhism or atheism; neither has ■ anything to do with i the truth or falsity of ■ 'any religion. ! Whether gravitation attracts Inversely as the square of the distance or not; whether species were created instanter, as coins are stamped in the mint, or were created by ; process, as a'gardener: grows roses-thai has nothing to do with the great fundamentals of religion: 'Thou; shalb love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and ; thy neighbour as thyself.' Indeed, the doctrine of evolution, rightly understood and. interpreted,' is to-day one of the most powerful aids to -';religious faith. >y It has delivered ; thousands from perplexity amounting A to despair. It has supplanted the old paralysing conception) of a : 'world-machine,' a world , mechanical and lifeless, : , grinding out human destiny without end. In place of that soulless mechanism we now • have a growing organism. A developing world, still in the" process, ceaselessly "unfolding, " still "■■■ to be shaped 'by human purpose and effortthat is the inspiring conception now placed in the hands of the church by modern I "science a conception which formed the basis of the first Christian parable of 'The \ Sower.') f Science is hot yet able to ;discern a world-soul or a creator; it leaves' that to religion. ' It has . nothingr to say about the purpose and goal of life or the spiritual presence' in: all things, which -is the ; vital j breath of religion. ; But; it has shown us a universe • alive, x, progressing,climbing with many backward steps toward 'one Jar-off divine event.' " ;■".;•: REDUCTION TO ATOMS. When one considers the; figures expressing the 'number of atoms in any ordinary mass of material,' the mind :is staggered'-.', by their . immensity, writes Dr.; F.':. W. Aston, F.R.S., in Nature. If we slice a standard decimeter ) cube V of. lead into square; • plates one' atom ; thick the ' area of ; these plates will total one and one-quarter '■ square miles. ■ If we cut these plates into strings of atoms spaced apart as they ; are in the solid,; these strings put end to end, will: reach 6.3 million million miles, the distance : light will travel in a year, a : quarter of ;, the distance to the. nearest fixed star. Again, 1 if .. an. ordinary . evacuated electric light bulb were pierced with an aperture such that one million molecules of air entered per second, the pressure in - the ; bulb would not rise to that of the \ air outside for a hundred million years, vi; It would, ■ at first sight," appear absurd to hope to obtain effects from single, atoms, yet this can now be done in. several ways. Discussing the size and form of atoms, Dr. Aston says:— in ; the heaviest atom the : constituent charges fail to fill even the million millionth part of its whole volume, f Experimental evidence leaves us no escape from the astounding conclusion that the atom;.; of matter, as aj- structure, :is empty, empty as the solar :system, and what we measure as its spherical boundary really only represents 4 the ; limiting \ orbits of its outermost electrons. The nucleus is extremely small compared with the whole atom. Thus, if in the atom of helium we take the nucleus, as represented by a rather large pea, its planetary electrons may be represented as two rather smaller peas revolving round it at a distance of a quarter of a t mile. RELEASE OF ATOMIC- ENERGY. Disruption of the nucleus of the atom needs enormous energy,* but once performed must give rise to the atom of a new element, says Dr.- Aston- The quantity of : matter so transmuted is almost inconceivably small, but it is the first step toward what may well be the greatest achievement of the human race, the release and. control of the so-called "atomic energy." We now know with certainty that four neutral hydrogen atoms weigh appreciably more than one neutral helium atom, though they contain identically the same units, 4 protons and 4 electrons. Transmutation of hydrogen into helium must inevitably destroy; matter and ; therefore liberate- energy. • i The quantity of energy can be calculated and is prodigious beyond the dreams of scientific fiction. If we could transmute the hydrogen contained in one pint of water the energy so liberated would be sufficient to propel the Mauretahia across the Atlantic and back at full speed. The possibility that the process of transmutation might be beyond control and result in the detonation of all the water on the earth at once is an interesting, one, since, in that case, the earth and its inhabitants would be dissipated into space as a new star, but the probability of such a catastrophe is too remote to be considered seriously. Doubtless, the more elderly and apelike of our prehistoric ancestors "grumbled at the innovation of cooked food, and gravely pointed !-. out -\ the terrible dangers of the newly invented agency, fire, but it can scarcely be maintained to-day -that history, : has 1 justifiad their caution.