WAVE RADIATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23135, 6 September 1938, Page 13

WAVE RADIATIONS

EFFECTS ON LIFE COMMERCIAL APPLICATION Hays and their effects on vegetable and animal life formed the subject of an illustrated lecture given by Professor P. W. Burbidge, professor of physics at Auckland -University College, in the college hall last night. The lecture was the sixth of a series arranged by the Auckland Institute and was entitled "Rays—ln Science and in Life."

"Mini's natural environment is that lie lives in heat, light and near ultraviolet radiations." said Professor Burbidgc, after a brief explanation, of rays and their nature. "He is also subject to other radiations which have their origin in "the little radioactive radium in the air. and finally ho is bathed in weak cosmic radiations. Heat and light radiations affect about 80 per cent of food production, and ultraviolet radiation is probably in natural man the main source of vitamin 1)."

llays of different wave-lengths had a widespread use in commercial and scientific processes, said Professor Burbidge. He instanced the use of ultraviolet rays in the sorting of seeds, faulty seeds giving off a different light from the sound when subjected to ultra-violet radiation. They also had a practical medical application in ultraviolet therapy. Short wireless waves produced localised heat in the body, used for the production of artificial fevers in the treatment of pneumonia and other sicknesses.