THE BROTHERLY WAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 78, 2 April 1938, Page 8

THE BROTHERLY WAY

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELFARE RUTHERFORD’S LAST WORDS Dear People,— “The death-bed is a detector of tte heart,’’ writes Young, in bis “Nig.it Thoughts.” The death-bed utterances of men and women have ever been held in the deepest reverence and quoted with the utmost respect, committing his last words to papei, Lord Rutherford gave yet another evidence of his marvellous gift of foresight. Having accepted the presidency of the Indian Science Congress Association, he might almost have foreseen that he was never to recover consciousness after his operation for his “last words” took the form of a full presidential address, destined to be delivered by his distinguished proxy, bir James Jeans, wherein his. written expressions as truly “detected ” his great heart and mind as might any' traditional death-bed utterance. International Bonds. By his last words, Lord Rutherford placed on record not only a resume and a forecast of the work of his own school of scientific research, but also emphasised the real and urgent need that exists for the strengthening of the spiritual bonds which link up scientific minds in space and in time. A suggestion has been made in London that Lord Rutherfords desires might particularly be given effect to by the creation ol a series of scientific and sociological delegations, to be known for ail time as the Rutherford Delegations, and whose objectives would include the carrying of the lamp of science and enlightenment to the ends of the earth. The New Alchemy. Since the advent of Rutherford, phylicists have been able in the most ’natural" way oossibie to perform niracles which the alchemists of olden imes laboured and gave their lives in lain to bring about. Faraday s pious lope that the research chemists of the 'then) future would one day “decompose metals, reform them and so realise the once-ridiculed notion ol transmutation” has been more than realised. The transmutation of metals mb. become an everyday occurrence, ogether with the transmutation of igiit into sound, and sound into light, uid the transmutation of energy info natter, and matter into energy. Ligat ran be heard and sound can be seen, colour can be felt and scent can be weighed.

Practical Applications. It is not, of course, for the purpose of carrying news of such “scientific marvels” to the ends of the earth that the Rutherford Delegations would b. established, but rather for the practical application of co-ordinated scientific though and method to the con sideration of problems. In all part, of the world, the ordinary man ano woman look with respect and awe upon the achievements of the Rutherferdian school of investigation, having a vague idea that numerous "conveniences," from the thermos flash to tin radio set, have sprung genie-like oui of the phials uncorked by this patient school of workers. What is perhaps not so well known is that recent edvances in pure physics are of considerable assistance to medical science and that the attainment of presen

day standards in nutritional knowledge have largely been facilitated by the, Rutherfordian researches in nuclea: ; physics. In Invisible Neutron. The connection between nuclear physics —and nutrition may be summarised by going back a little way tu the discovery of that new type of spontaneous transformation of the nucleus of the atom which results in the elementary particle, the neutron, being expelled into the atmosphere, jThe neutron, as its name implies, carries no electric charge. It is, therefore, unable to eiectnfy the gas in its j path, when projected. Consequently, lit leaves no track whatever behind n jin an expansion chamber. Yet the j Rutherfordian school of reseach is able • definitely to trace the individual pair. I taken by this invisible, ungraspable ■ neutron, as well as to form an adcquate idea as its velocity, its needs anu • its uses. Now this infinitesimal particle, the neutron, possesses peculiar and novel properties which render it of particular value in radiation therapy, and —as a chemical and biological ' indicator—in nutritional experiments. ■ The Neutron and Nutrition. The Rutherfordian sch\o! of investigators are able with the precision anu the certainty of mathematics not only to trace, measure and utilise those invisible Hashes of energy forming the primary substratum of material creation, but are further able to point tlu way to the effective "labelling" of such elementary particles. In this • way, the subsequent history of labelled elements may be followed through the most complicated chemical actions, during experiments. For example, the action of calcium and phosphorus in the bodies of living animals has been ■ closely studied, in the interests of human health and fitness. ! Amelioration of Suffering. I In regard to the future development I of his own specialised lines of research, Lord Rutherford was a strong advoIcate for th founding of a National [ Radiological Institute, where the adIvance of physics could be furthered ■and made available to physicians anu i to surgeons for the alleviation of sutjfering. One of the links between th' 1 ;work of the suggested Radiological Institute and nuclear physics lies in I fact that neutrons are more effective, biologically, than are X-rays, having a greater “selective” action; that is to say, intense neutron-beams inflict relatively greater damage on malignant j cells than on normal ones. Yours as ever,