SCIENCE SIFTINGS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 10, 8 March 1923, Page 54

SCIENCE SIFTINGS

By "VOLT"

Hotter Than the Sun. Until a few years ago it was thought that the sun's heat was the greatest that could exist. You can realise how intense it is when you think that the rays that burn our faces brown in summer time have travelled across 92,000,000 miles of space. i Scientists have succeeded in producing a temperature that is thousands of degrees hotter than the sun's surface. It was desired to study the composition of certain metals and the only way of doing so was to reduce them to gas by applying heat. The temperature necessary was enormous, and months of experiments were needed before a means of producing it could be found. Eventually a huge electrical apparatus was installed which produced heat so terrific that metals were converted not slowly but instantly into gas; in fact pieces of tungsten were made to explode as if they had been dynamite. The heat generated reached a temperature of 40 000 degrees Fahrenheit. '

Common Causes of Troubled Rest. How many people realise that sleep is the most important thing in the world? It is said that Napoleon, Wellington, Frederick the Great, and many other famous men slept on an average no more than four or five hours every day. Whether this statement be true or not, its propagation has done an incalculable amount of harm. It has set us a false standard.

The fallacious inference has been drawn that to make the most of life we ought to sleep as little as possible. It is considered -clover" to be able to sit up late and rise early. We pretend to scoff at sleep as a waste of valuable time -Sleepyhead" is one of the bitterest forms of reproach. We forget Boswell's accounts of the incomparable Dr. Johnson lying abed till three in the afternoon. We forget that the great Darwin, for all the marvellous work he did m Ins lifetime, could not work more than two or three hours a day. Sleep is more than the mere "suspension of bodily activity that the older scientists used to call it. A continual process of reconstruction goes on all through the body while we sleep. It is only then that food eaten in the daytime goes through the later stages of transformation into bodily tissue, repairing the ravages of yesterday and preparing for the labors of to-morrow. Obviously the amount of sleep required depends on How long this process of reconstruction takes to be completed. It proceeds much more rapidly when we sleep soundly. For an exceptionally heavy sleeper four or five hours may suffice, while a light sleeper may resuire nine or ten. The nearest we can come to a " rule is: Sleep until you feel refreshed. J The after-dinner "forty winks" of the aged cannot be considered true sleep. It is not a reconstructive process, but lassitude due to general weakness, faulty elimination of waste products, and often over-eating. It is no more true sleep than the drowsy unconsciousness of the highly fevered invalid. After-dinner "naps" are frequently excused on the grounds of broken sleep at night. But they are a very ineffectual remedy. The causes of light and broken sleep are legion. Some of the commonest are the abuse of stimulants, such as tea and tobacco; excessive mental activity, often resulting in dreams; discomfort and distraction duo to insufficient bedclothes, or an uncomfortable bed with noisy, creaking springs. But the most common cause of all is inadequate ventilation. Even more oxygen is required for sound, healthy sleep than for ordinary purposes in the daytime.