MATTER AND ENERGY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19164, 22 November 1927, Page 4

MATTER AND ENERGY.

NEW SOLUTION TO OLD RIDDLE. NATURE OF THE ETHBR, (rsox OU& owx coKassroKsairr.) LONDON, October 4. Sir Oliver Lodge has made a furthe: attempt to solve the riddle of th< universe. Energy, he said, was like capital it only became active when liberated then it exercised force and did work the energy being not lost or destroy ed but merely transferred to some thing else. Energy was deceptive in appearance "Consider," he said, "an atom of ra dium. It is usually quiet enough, bul once a century or so it fires off a pro jectile. It may take a thousand yean before it fires off one, but once begur it fires off four more at intervals, unti it has become 'dead,' when it is quiet again. But who knows whether it has exhausted all its energy even then ? "We are now pretty certain thai it has not," he continued, "and thai any ordinary inert piece of matter lik( a lump of lead, or of clay, or stone, oi even a glass of water, still contains a vast store of energy in its interioi locked up among the atoms and onlj waiting for a detent or trigger tc liberate it, as a haystack is waiting for a lucifer match." Matter a Form of Energy. All energy seemed to be going from matter to ether. The sun ana stars were pouring out radiation-continually at the expense of their own substance, We did not know how to destroy matter and convert it into other forms oi energy, but nevertheless the process was going on before our eyes, though not cm the earth. That matter was only one of innumerable forms of energy had been emphasised by Einstein in his theory of relativity This was the revolution in thought which characterised the advance of science in the twentieth century. The electrical theory of matter began it, the theory of relativity would go on to clinch it. We should find that the fundamental thing in the material universe was the ether in its various forms of energy, and that the sun and stars and planet* were only the latest recognised manifestation of an unsuspected form of that energy. Posterity had to solve the- problem of the connexion between etheric energy, on the one hand, and life and mind on the other. "Now, let me tell you," Sir Oliver said, "privately and unofficially, what I think myself about the structure and properties of the material universe, leaving its mental and spiritual, and even its vital, aspects unmentioned. For although some biologists and philosophers have used the term 'vital energy' as if life were one of the forms which energy takes, I do not myself think that that term is justified. "Undogmatically and tentatively, I do not think that life is one of. the forms of energy in the sense that it can be transmuted into other forms. It seems to me a guiding and directing principle ad extra, which interacts with the material or the physical universe, but is not of it. "I apprehend that the universe must contain many things beyond the scope of those that we study in physical science, and that we only get a dim and clouded apprehension of such things when they interact with those other aspects which either directly or indirectly appeal to our senses or'our reason. "These higher entities appear to me undeniable realities, but we are not provided with the clues which may some day, perhaps, enable us to treat them scientifically, and incorporate them into the region of organised knowledge. Meanwhile, though we may be respectfully silent about them, we need not make the absurd blunder of denying their existence. Place of Intuition. ! "The intuitions of poets, prophets, and saints are to be respected even by the devotees of physical science, whose field is so large already that they are tempted to treat is as comprehensive of all reality, which I assert dogmatically it is not. ; "There are indications that the universe has always existed, and it is still a going concern. It has not run down yet, and perhaps never will. When we attend to ether and matter alone, what is called the 'law of dissipation of the energy' does not hold. Can it be true that the universe is like a running down clock? Is there anything that could wind it up againT The answer is, Yes: Intelligence. "Clerk Maxwell imagined an intelligent contrivance whereby quick molecules could be sorted out from slow, and thus one chamber be made hot, another cold, without expenditure of energy. Lord Kelvin developed this idea under the name of 'Maxwell's demons,' but that may be only a beginning, a hint about something of supreme importance. We' can already realise that the universo is infinite beyond our com-1 prehension, that its complete under-1 standing is beyond our comprehension and scientific grasp, and that our imagination, intuision, and every other faculty must be strained to the uttermost before we get a momentary glimpse of the vast possibilities latent in reality as a whole."