ENERGY OF UNIVERSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20760, 31 December 1930, Page 11

ENERGY OF UNIVERSE.

THEORY OF PHYSICIST.

WOUND UP LIKE A CLOCK

(Received December 30. 7.45 p.m.) NEW YORK. Dec. 30. A message from Cleveland says Dr. Robert Millikan, an eminent physicist, addressing the opening session of the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science presented arguments based on his recent researches into the cosmic rays, to prove his contention that the universe is like a clock, constantly being wounc! up by a creator, who is constantly " on his job." Dr. Millikan, discussing " atomic disintegration and atomic synthesis," assured the gathering that a scientific belief in evolutionary progress did not imply disbelief in religion. He offered his theory of increasing universal energy as an argument to the British scientists Sir James Jeans and Dr. A. S. Eddington, who contend that the energy of the universe is disappearing owing to tlio working of the second law of thermo-dynamics.

Dr. Robert Millikan is director of physics in the University of California. He was awarded tho Hughes Medal of tho Royal Society in 1923, tho Nobel Prize for physics (for isolating the electron) in 1923, and the Faraday Medal of the London Chemical Society, 1924, and other foreign honours, and also the gold medal of the Society of Arts and Sciences for his theory of the creation of cosmic rays, 1923. Sir James Jeans is secretary of tho Royal Society, and <i noted astronomer and physicist. Dr. Eddington is Plumian professor of astronomy in Cambridge University.