COSMIC RAYS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 200, 27 August 1935, Page 11

COSMIC RAYS

A PHYSICAL MYSTERY NEW ZEALANDER'S STUDY To talk with Mr. W. 11. Pickering, who was in Wellington recently, on cosmic rays, a subject in which ne specialises at the Californian Institute of Technology, Pasadena, is to embark I rather upon an excursion into the lealms of pure science. In an interview, however, he was pinned down more or less to fundamentals and he made some interesting comments on the rays and their effects, states the Post. Mr. Pickering is a young New Zealander and is visiting the Dominion on furlough. He is an old boy of Wellington College, where he was a prefect. After leaving Wellington College, he spent a year at Canterbury College, and from there went to the Californian Institute of Technology, Pasadena. There he won an unusual distinction in being chosen as one of eight youths to receive fellowships from the Charles A. Coflin Foundation. The fellowships are awarded to enable students to persue their studies at a university of their choice. Mr. Pickering decided upon cosmic rays and is studying under Professor .Robert A. Millikan, the distinguished American physicist. Mr. Pickering has done three years research work in this field, and he is also a lecturer in physics at the university. Mr. Pickering said that the term “•cosmic” was perhaps an unfortunate one. It would have been better if the rays had been called penetrating rays. A cosmic ray, he continued, was an extremely penetrating radiation which • was bombarding the earth all the limo from outside. Its origin was uncertain. It was definite that it was not the sun, because it was the same day and night. Probably it came from far out in space. Cosmic rays, continued Mr. Pickering, were able to penetrate 200 feet under water, and one man claimed to | have detected their effects 600 feet under water. The rays were able to penetrate 9 feet of lead, whereas Xrays stopped at half an invh. The study of the rays was an investigation in pure science. Scientists were | interested in them for two reasons. The first was the scientist’s natural curiosity about the universe, and the other reason was the effect cosmic rays had on matter. It was known that they would smash an atom in a way nothing else would do. Questioned as to whether any use could be made of the rays, Mr Pickering said that the trouble was there was no means of concentrating the rays, and it was difficult to see that, there ever would be. Hound the Equator there were fewer rays than elsewhere, tho reason being that the earth’s magnetic field acted on the rays and swept them away towards the Poles. The study of cosmic rays had been proceeding seriously for about ten years. It was difficult to say that thev | had been discovered by any partieu- I lar scientist, 'rhe position rattier was i that there had been a gradual develop- I ment. Loid Rutherford, Professor Mil- ' lihan, and Professor Arthur Compton I (who visited New Zealand in 1932 to I carry out experiments) were among I those who had been prominent in the research work. This summer some ex-

periments were to bp carried out in Peru and in Texas, and possibly Professor Millikan would accompany the party going to Texas. Asked whether the views of Professor'Millikan and Professor Compton were, still at. variance concerning cosmic rays, Mr. P.Vkering said that the views of the two professors certainly had been diametrically opposed at one time, but he thought they were gradually coming Vgather. From a scientist ’s point of view, really a lot was known about the rays now, and ho considered that more would be known in a few years. Mr. Pickering is returning to Pasadena by the Niagara. lie has with him some apparatus which, through the co-operation of the Union Steam Ship Company, he used on the trip to Wellington from San Francisco last month for the purpose of taking observations, particularly in the tropics. He has taken his H.Cc. and M.Sc. degrees nt Pasadena, and is going back to the university for another year with the object of obtaining the degree of Doctor of Science.