PLEA FOR SCIENCE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20363, 21 July 1934, Page 21 (Supplement)

PLEA FOR SCIENCE.

More Training of Common Sense Required. CLOSING OF FORESTRY SCHOOL. (By E. J. HOWARD. M.P.). CCIENCE is trained common-sense. That is to say, we ordiftary people walk down the street and we see things and accept them as facts, and yet to the trained eye they are not what ordinary people believe them to be. * Over in the biological department of Canterbury College we can find a

series of single living cells called amoebas. They float around, they eat and perhaps drink; they s£lit in halves and reproduce their kind. They don’t like the direct rays of light and will move away, showing what appears to be the dawn of sense common to the . amoeba. So, too, what is

termed photography depends upon the effect of light upon some sensitive material that we term salts. Between the two, that is, the living amoeba and the dead salts, there appears to be no connection, and yet they both react to light. We find in the evolution of life from its simplest form to that of our noblest animal, man, that each stage seems to have developed certain tools that are necessary to enjoy existence. The earthworm, for example, has no eyes, and yet he will respond to light and dig himself into the earth in his endeavours to avoid the light. Man has developed two eyes. lie can see the flowers, the trees, and the beauty of Nature. He can avoid his enemies because of this highly developed faculty of sight. Light penetrates the earthworm’s sensation so slowly that the early bird catches him sometimes before he seeks safety in the ground. Progress Made.

A little more than a century and a half ago, science was the property of religious men—that is, a few monks. But to-day the ordinary high school boy can play with science in a way that would have sent men to the stake a couple of hundred years ago. This is a plea for more science or more training of common-sense. During the past four years there has sprung into being a form of advertising known as neon signs. Few of us tried to find out what it was and how it was worked.

Television will come directly; no one will be astonished and no one will question the why or wherefore. Somewhere we have men sitting up, when others sleep, trying to perfect the machine that is to do the trick. As far back as 1785, Richard Cavendish found neon in the air. Having separated the oxygen and nitrogen from the air, he found that there was something left. About one hundred years later, Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay set to work to find out just what was this l-120th part of the £ir that was left. They found there was a difference between atmospheric nitrogen and chemical nitrogen. Discovery of Gases. In 1594 they weighed this difference and then set out to separate it. They read up all they could find on the matter, including what Cavendish had found a hundrfed years earlier. They repeated his experiment with improvements; and they found the “ atmospheric ” nitrogen contained about 1 per cent of a heavier gas. This gas they called “argon,” a Greek word meaning “ lazy.”

Later on, in 1898, they found this residue from atmorpheric nitrogen contained other gase.. It contained small quantities of “Neon, or new gas”; of helium, the sun gas; of krypton, the hidden gas, and tenon, the stranger. “Thus,” says J. A. Stevenson, “were discovered the rare gases of the atmosphere, all as a result of Lord Rayleigh’s careful determination of the atmospheric nitrogen in 1894.’’ Argon, neon and helium are made today commercially from air by compressing it and cooling it till the air liquifies. All the illuminated signs of the neon class consist of glass tubes out of which all the air has been pumped Then a very little neon gas is allowed to enter the tube. Electric current, through a transformer that raises it to about 4000 volts, is passed through the tube and the gas glows with a flame colour. A similar tube with a mixture of argon, neon and mercury vapour gives a blue colour. The green is the blue seen through yellow glass. A primrose is helium pumped in in the same way. All those dancing colours are the effect of a trace of benzol oi benzene alternately evaporating and condensing in the tube. Those who are interested in this question can obtain the information from our Public Library. And if you don’t believe in “ fairies ” it is well worth the study Will Unlock the Door. Science is the key that will unlock the door to happiness or to Blue Beard’s chamber just as we happen tc receive the key. At twenty-one the boy is an optimist. lie cannot see the road ahead, but he cares not for ruts or obstacles. Onward to Utopia, says the boy of that age. > At thirty he is beginning to become cautious. At forty he begins to see some of the difficulties; and then comes old age and the economist. “It can’t be done,” says the economist. “ Where is the money coming from? It can’t be done,” says this snag in the river of progress, “ unless you pay tribute to someone for letting you do it.” We have closed down the School of Forestry because there are a few degree men on pick and shovel work. Too many men with trained common sense. The foundation of our University Colleges is the arts. That is why ou: degrees are termed Bachelor of Artand Master of Arts. They are sup posed to be trained common sense. Our colleges should be the home o; all knowledge. Should a man be term ed a Master of Arts if he is not master of arts? If we are in diflicu. ties to-day there is a reason. Th* reason is we have fallen short some where in the arts. To close down the School of Forestry is a step backward. There are a mil lion ways to use the trees. Nature is laughing at us. Here, brother, are food clothing and shelter for you and youi children. Use it. and live at any standard you like. Science is organised common sense.