SCIENCE NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14377, 21 November 1908, Page 10

SCIENCE NOTES.

— Professor Rutherford's research in • radium was extolled by. Dublin University, which conferred* on him a spceiol degree. 110 was said to have prophesied the amount of heat which is developed from radium in its various generations, which amount was afterwards verified by Laborde and Paul Curie, while his conjecture as to ,;ho\v helium would arise from the break-up j of the atoms of radium V.'as subsequently confirmed by ltamsay and Soddy. —Mr Richcnson, of Burslem, claims to have invented a dirigible aerial battleship. The deck of tho vessel will bo 100 ft long, and will carry six guns of small calibre. The _ inventor has .combined the principles of "lighter than. , air" and "heavier than airj" tho ship being partly aeroplane and 'partly : a dirigible balloon. A lever will release tho vessel from its anchorage when it is ready for flight, and, says tho inventor, it 6oars into the air like u bird leaving its 1 nest. •< — Tho ■most powerful microscope sho-vs pbjccts about one hundred-thousandth of an inch hi size,. but tho'latest ulfra-micro-wopo of Siedentopf and Zsigmondy has ro- > vealod particles not moro than one fivemillionth, of an inch in diametor, and Dr Bcchhold declares that, with stronger illumination—such as the more powerful sunlight on Mount Kilimanjaro, in Africa !—wo could luiciuestionubly see molecules. ■j —Tests'with red, green, blue, and w.'iite • light during (he last two years have siiuivii a French experimenter that colours have effects on .vegetation that may prove of great practical importance. Under rod light, for/ instance, tho growth of vegej tables wa6 51 thnes.as rapid as- under blue light Blue light, on the other hand, had i a remarkable preservative power on growi ing vegetation, and two years after planting tho first leaves of an oak tree were las fresh .'and vigorous as over. Of oven | greater' economic value seems tho discovery j that ripo fruit keeps remarkably under a . blue screen,'showing no decay after several { weeks. > ~ — The rocks along- tho western coast of Ireland, which- the huge Atlaniio rollers have for centuries been slowly breaking down , and piercing • with groat' caverns, contain in. their depths masses of .iron pyrites and alum. Atone part of- the. coast tho 'water penetrated to these, and a rapid oxidisation took plane, which produced a heat fierce enough to ' 'set the'whole cliff on fire. For weeks, the I roeks burnt like a regular volcano, and , great clouds of sriioko and vapour'rose higii in the air. When at last the tiro died . oiij groat masses of lava and clay burnt to brick were found in every direction., II: J. ,B, Passat, of Thornton Heath, is developing a flying machino based absolutely.' upon tho action of birds skimming through -''tho; air and the action'of the.air upon l their wings. The invention is tiiiij) virtually a bird machine. Tho central part of the frame is in the form of the lxxly of a largo, bird, and is fitted with four-wings—two in front to keep tho inachino up and two at t,ho rear to drivo it along, . When the wings arc fully expanded tho total width of tho' maohinc, from tip. to tip, and including the frames, 1 will not'exceed 25ft, as compared with the 40ft or 50ft width of somo of tho devices now being pushed forward. Mr. Passat does not- at 'present aim at terrific speeds,' such as 100 miles or '200 miles an hour, which aro freely talked about, but ho docs' aiitieipate 40 miles or '50 miles an hour. The total weight of his machine, by tho way, wiH probably not exceed 2001b, The. flying machine is not yet coriiplctud, but ,tno inventor has successfully experimented with the wings, l for not'only has ho himself been able to float in tho air with the wings attached to him, but Mrs Passat has travelled in the same way for an appreciable distance/ . —A remarkable elcctrio moth-trap for tho extermination; of moths/ which nic eneniies of trees, is reported .from Zittaii, Saxony. ' This apparatus, in portable form, should be ablo to free a large from pests' of i moths and caterpillars at comparatively sinali cost. The trap includes two powerful searchlights, and ', these are arranged, ovor .6trong exhaust fans, winch suck tho air into a deep receptacle. In the first trial the trap has been placed at tho top of the municipal elcctrio station,.. The reflectors at night/throw two great streams of light upon- tlio wcodcd mountain sides, a half-mile away, and tho effect has been amazing. , Lured along the great white traps, the moths liavo come in .fluttering armies. At a certain distance from the', reflectors tho draught from the fans catches tho dazed victims, , which are then whirled into the pit beneath. The first night's catoh of three tons should mark a new era. . .. ' r- Professor J. J.' Thomson, of Cambridge, is to be the president of the British, ■Association'next- year. Tho amazing results of tho work of tho 1 Cambridge .professor recall tlio fairy stories of the old alchemists. Everyone .to-iday knows a little about the high vacuum tulies and tho Ront gen, rays. But it \yas Thomson who measured both tho mass and tho speed of tho flying particles, who counted them and told ; iia the exact electrical ohargo of each. ■He informed'the chemists, who had hitherto looked' upon the atom as tho smallest conceivable, particle of matter, tjat thesp bits, of that substance , which ho named electrons arc a, thousand times' smaller than the .smallest or lightest atom known to them. Ho made us'stupidly wonder whether we had at lnet. found primal matter. ' These electrons or' "corpuselos,'.' said the twentieth-century wizard, 'are all alike, no matter whence they tonic. Aro they tho-stuff, we still ask ourselves, from, which everything is built? Can we transunite lead into gold, or have wo found the .philosopher's stone! We cannot tell. We,. can .only wait with eager expectancy for tho 'next communication to Che Koyal Society, or presidential address to' come other learned bedy, andlthcn, as the words slowly filter into our minds, realise that we liavo by no means exhausted' all the secret laws of science. — Not all the bees one sees on the flowers are the busy littlo fellows who nipplv our tables with, honey.' 0£ course you .all know that the great family of bees may bo roughly divided into the social bees, Miosc that live together in. populous communities, and the solitary bees who live only one or' two in a home. Instead of building homes of wax,' some of these industrious littlo solitary fellows aro tunne.l-builde.rs, and excavate their homes in the earth. By no means is. theirs a light, task,'and tho amount, of work sometimes dono.'by a single bco is enormous—almost beyond belief. It has been approximately calculated that, tlio lilUo blue digger-boo (Augoehlnra) digs such a tunnel in proportion to, her weight that if a man weighing 1851b would equal it, ho must dig a liolo 4ft in diameter and 1295 miles deep. ' And this represents less than half the work done, for this computation takes no account of the branches and colls. Furthermore, it has been since .discovered' that this little beo digs two of these tunnels dlring her lifetime. The tunnels of some of tho solitary bees aire driven horizontally in the sides of steep slopes, and others aro sunk vertically from'tho surface bf the level ground, according to the habits of the different species, Leading from the main passageway/ there, avo short branches which terminate each in a widened • chambor or cell. The wholo . interior of this cell is plastered with a cement that makes the walls smooth and waterproof, and also hardens them eo the earth does not fall in. These little boos differ slightly in their opinions as to which is tho best food, and, consequently, some species store their cells with a yslict of pollen, while others are sure that honey, with a littlo pollen added, is by far the best food for a young bee. In either case an egg is placed on the food-mass and the entranco to the cell closed up. When the lowest cell 'is properly .stocked and sealed •the next one above it is undertaken, then t.ho next higher one, and so on toward tho top. In this way the earth from each suceccding cell fills tho'passageway below it and so prevents access to the ceils by the natural enemies of tho bees.—From Jvaftiro. and Scienco in September St. N.cholas.