SCIENCE OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20378, 5 October 1929, Page 5 (Supplement)

SCIENCE OF THE DAY.

TRIUMPHS OF CHEMISTRY.

Although the Chemists' Exhibition, which was held in London recently, smelt as one might expect, exactly like a chomists's shop, says a London writer, thoro aro moro wonders in it than aro to be met with in tho ordinary pharmacy. Most prominent in the scheme of things are the multitudinous perfumes. It might have been thought that at this time of day thero was no new scent to discover; yot at one stall thoro was a delicate perfumo that had been captured from ft bush flower of Australia, bottled and taken to England for tho first time. It is named Boronia.

One does not ordinarily look to the chemist's shop to provide for tho dinner table, but a new era in this direction soems to havo been begun by tho Hudson's Bay Company, whose products, of course, are all of natural extraction in the regions of tho Arctic. At this stall one discovered a now hors d'oeuvro, which, as its name, pate do morue, suggests, is made from cod. It embodies the whole substance of fresh cod liver and looks and tastes not unlike pate de foio eras. It is a delicatcsso for which is claimed a medical as well as a dietetic value. From the same fish has been prepared a paste, liko beef extract, which can be used as a basis for soups, and a solublo protein, which, it is suggested, might mako an excellent liqueur. Ono exhibit was a bottle containing tho thyroid glands of the seal, These have been introduced to Britain for the first time in tho hope that they may become important to tho medical profession, since tho seal suffers from no known disease. Neither sportsmen nor animals were forgotten by the chemists. For tho former thero was a new protecting personal perfume which, it is claimed, wards off tho attacks of mosquitoes and other pernicious insects, and for the latter a new vitamin product for racehorses. Tho value of hops in lulling to sleep is used in some now orange coloured tablets, which also contain extracts from valerian root. Nor has the chemist's art neglected to think out further soft drinks, which, it is stated, are coming moro and moro into favour in Britain. GLASS-WALLED HOUSES, Many mediums havo been tried for houses since tho war, but glass is certainly new. That it has distinct possibilities is proved, however, by tho fact that both

in the United States and in Germany, increasing attention is being paid to Iho material, and that already several houses havo been built with walls of frosted glass. The innovation may, of course, bo another expression of the odd spirit of enterprise which has already produced globular houses in Germany and expanding houses on the elastic bookcase principle in Austria, but it lias some rational virtues for all that which may contain the seed of perpetuity remarks the Glasgow Weekly Herald. _lt is claimed that glass houses can be erected in 48 hours at half the cost of brick buildings, while a friend who has seen one writes glowingly of their smart appearance, their essential*, cleanliness, and the non-inflammable advantages. They are produced on the mass production principle, each section being standardised and easily assembled.

SHOOTING STARS ON LABGE SCALE. • Cold lumps of stone have been circulating round the sun from time immemorial, in a form quite invisible to people on earth, occasionally meet tho earth's atmosphere in their mutual journeys; they are then rendered incandescent and are usually dispersed as dust, which ultimately settles down upon tho earth, writes Sir Oliver Lodge. Occasionally they are not completely dispersed, and tho central nucleus comes down itself as a meteorite. Tho death of these small travelling bodies is signalled to us by tho light they emit as they streak through the upper air, under tho popular name of " shooting siars." Such ovents as theso are on a very small scalo, and aro unimportant. But tho same thing might happen on n vory much larger scale if a real star encountered tho outer-most boundaries of a nobula. No mattor how rarefied tho matter might be, even if it were rarefied as what wo call tho " exhausted " globo of a vacuum bulb, the friction would be enormous at astronomical speed. And if thoro wcro a solar system attached to tho star, it would probably bo dissipated in vapour, or, at any rate, reduced to fragments.