FATE OF THE UNIVERSE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20493, 11 March 1932, Page 10

FATE OF THE UNIVERSE.

DISINTEGRATION OR RENEWAL ? EXPERIMENTS AT MOUNT COOK IN APRIL. PROFESSOR COMPTON'S VISIT. Scientific experiments of world-wide interest, with the object of determining whether the universe is self re-estab-lishing or whether it is self destroying, will be conducted at Mount Cook next month by Professor Arthur H. Compton, a distinguished American physicist, and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1927. Professor Compton, who will arrive at Auckland on April 18th and travel direct to the Hermitage, is seeking the origin of the cosmic radiations which emanate from ' the unexplored regions of outer space and are powerfully attracted to the earth —a problem which he himself has | declared to be of fundamental importance to mankind. Five expeditions have been organised to collect data for Professor Compton's investigation. The first will make its preliminary readings at Mount Chico (Panama Canal zone), Huan Cayo (Peru)., Mount Cook (New Zealanu), Mount Kosciusko (Australia), Mauna Kea (Hawaii), and Mount McKinley (Alaska). New Zealand was included because.it is the nearest elevated land to the South Magnetic Pole, with the exception of the two volcanoes, Erebus and Terror, in the Ross Sea. Thq party will be at Mount Cook for seven days, and will work in collaboration with Professor P. W. Burbidge, of Auckland University College, and other New Zealand scientists. The physics laboratories at Canterbury College will be offered for any Subsequent experimental work which may be necessary. World-Wide Investigation. The second expedition will work in the same manner through Peru, the Argentine, and' Chile. The third will visit Capetown and several South African peaks. The fourth expedition, starting from Lahore (India), will go thence to Mount Tjerimai, in Java, to Singapore, the -Malay Islands, Geylon, ond finally to Mount Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas, the third „ highest peak in the world.. The fifttj pqrtv.will work at Denver r-hd Mount Evans, Colorado, and will also co-qperate with the first expedition in Alaska. There is a suggestion that parties of . t,ho scientists may also accompany independent expeditions to both the North and South roles, where the pure atmosphere would materially assist their .e*periments. J Origin of Radiations.

The object of this extensive research •was explained to The Press yesterday by Dr. C. Coleridge Farr; Professor-ot Physics at Canterourv College. "Ihe aim is to study the incidence of certain' penetrating rays, which have been found to be arriving at the earth through space," he said. "Experiments which have been so far carried out show that these rays are coming from all directions in space, and are extremely penetrating. Dr. R. A. Millikan was an early one to determine their absorbability, and to do this he had to let his instruments down into some of the de3p lakes of the Rocky Mountains. Thus he was able to showthat the rays wera absorbed in their passago through matter, ana to measure the extent of that absorption. These rays, it must be emphasised, are extraordinarily penetrating, more penetrating even than the gamma rays already known, whhh will pass through great thicknesses of load. , , '"Die question at issuo is tho origin of these rays. From their absorbability, which can be measured by their falling-olf on passing through known thicknesses of matter tho wave-length of the radiation can bo obtained by the Klein-Nishina formula wliich connects the absorbability of the rays with tho wave-length. From their wavelength information may bo gathered of the origin of-the rays. Fate of the Universe. "Whether these rays originate—as thfcy may, and as is believed by Jeans to b© tho case —in the absolute destruction of matter or whether—as Millikan asserts—they originate in the formation of more complex elements from tho simplest constituents is the questionwhich modern scientists have to decide. In other words, is the universe self re-establishing or is it Belf-destroying ? The question has not yet been answered, and although oach side hotly supports its argument, it can be settled only by an exact knowledge of the absorbability of the rays and thus of their wave-length." Professor Compton, continued Dr. Parr, was coming to New Zealand to measure tho rays which this part of the earth received as high as he could on Mount Cook, and also at lower levels to seo how far they were reduced on passing through known thicknesses of atmosphere in these regions. He would continue this work in Australia, at Mount Kosciusko. "It is to be hoped that if he remains here long enough we shall be able to extract some sort of a talk from him " added Dr. Farr. "He is a very distinguished man. There is a thing known to every physicist in tho .world as the 'Compton effect.' " Science and Beligion. Lord Eutherford was one of the first to discover the existence of cosmic radiations, and his work was greatly advanced by Regener in Europe and Millikan and Compton in the United States. Regener extended the absorption experiments of Millikan by lowering his apparatus successively to depths of 236 metres in Lake Constance, Switzerland. While Millikan's evidence leads him to believe that creation is a continuing process, Eddington and Jeans, the British scientists, believe that the universe is running down and that in the immeasurable future it will come to a dead stop. Millikan declares that while tho sun and stars are constantly annihilating atoms and throwing them off in the form of radiant energy, new atoms are being built out of hydrogen all through space and are rained upon all heavenly boides in the form of cosmic rays. In the cosmic ray, in other words, he sees the operation of a force which continually renews the universe, a force to which he applies the word "Creator." Thus Millikan has sought to reconcile science and religion after their long conflict. Professor Compton's Career. Professor Compton, who is travelling with his wife and 14-year-old son, has been Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago since 1023. Ha wan i

bora in Ohio 40 years ago, and was educated at Princeton University. In a short but distinguished career, ho has received honours from universities in all parts of the United States, from Britain, Belgium, Italy, and even India. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the' American Academy of Sciences in 1926 the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927, and the Gold Medal of the American Radiological Society in 1928. He is a noted authority on X-rays and the science of the atom, and belongs to many American and European scientific societies and academies.