SCIENCE OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20420, 23 November 1929, Page 6 (Supplement)

SCIENCE OF THE DAY.

NOSES AND THEIR USES. Noses, and their characteristics in the animal kingdom, form the themo of an informative article by Mr. Robert 1. Hntt, assistant curator of mammals, American Museum. Ho observes that the human nose is equipped to perform two important functions other than smelling: to remove impurities from the air and kill harmful bacteria before they reach (ho respiratory passages, and to warm the .usually cooler air to body temperature. The hippopotamus, crocodile and whale being submersible.';, havo their noses so placed that they may keep them out of (he water without fear of observation by their natural enemies.

The sense of smell is highly developed in savago peoples, says Mr. Hutt, ,1> C * cause of tlie thousand and one ways in which they aro Totally dependent on it for survival in their primitive environment. In similar conditions the whilo man's senso of smell would probably again become as keen as theirs. Nature's best noso is that of the elephant. A gatherer, bath spray, weapon and bugle, all in one, it is to him a priceless possession. The sea otter lias an elaborate warming structure in his nose. Tito walrus has whiskers like a steel brush on his broad muzzle, supposed to aid him in finding molluscs buried in tho mud. Lions, tigers, and members of the cat family, as well as mice and rats, have long whiskers on their noso to help them feel their way in the darkness.

The exuberant nasal exfoliation of the insecl-ealing bat carries a special set of senso organs essential to its insect-catch-ing habits. Flesh feelers halo the nose of the mole. Wild pins do with their noses what humans would need pneumatic drills to do. Two of them ripped up the entire asphalt floor of their outer cage in the New York zoo to seo what was underneath. The squirrel has a poor sense of smell in finding nuts buried in the earth, but a remarkably good memory m locating caches of nuts ho has " planted.

SCIENCE OF raE ANCIENTS. " Recent research in horticulture " was (ho subject of a lecturo bv ISTr. C. W. May hew, an instructor of Horticulture in the North of England. In the course ot' his lecture Mr. Mayhew instanced the growing of vegetables similar to those of tho present day in Roman times, and of the manuring of land in the middle ages. Ho said that though horticulture and agriculture wero the oldest.sciences, up to a hundred years ago men were groping about for knowledge. Though that was tho case, however, their present position in horticultuie was largely the result of the work of their fathers and grandfathers. Referring to recent research in apple culture, Mr. Mavhew cited au experiment at tho Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, when tho interesting discovery that rooting was stimulated by tho slightly acid condition of tho soil had been ma^e. "FIIRST ELECTRIC GLOW LAMP. The celebrations in America of the 50th anniversary of the invention of the electric incandescent lamp, by Edison, has drawn attention to tho fact, which came out incidentally in tho course of patent litigation in 1893, that Heinrich Goebel, then in Now York, constructed and exhibited electric glow lamps with carbonised bamboo filaments' in 1854 and 1855. Tho patent suit was brought by tho Edison Electric Light Company against a Boston firm. Goebel was born in Sprinse. near Hanover, in 1818, and emigrated to New York when 30 years of ace. 110 was a clockmaker and optician and made various inventions. He evacuated his glass bulbs by providing the bulb with u long stem, filling it with mercury, and then inverting it. Tho choice cf_ bamboo as material for tho filaments is said to havo been duo to an accidental observation. Goebol illuminated his shop with his lamps and displayed them otherwise. But he had to generate his electric currents by galvanic batteries, of course, and want of capital prevented his persovering with tho experiments. He diod on September 14, in tho year of the patent suit mentioned, at New York. The Verband Uoutschor Elektrotcchniker has recently fixed a memorial tablet to the houso at Springo in which Goebel was born.