SCIENCE NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 December 1924, Page 2

SCIENCE NOTES.

WEED SUPPLIES RARE SUGAR. Eevulo.se a if.luahle sugar 'he re toll 11"' so difficult to produce that it cost from Cti to C 22 a pound, can now lie made cheaply enough to he used on anybody’s table, by a process worked onL iii the laboratories of the United •Stales Bureau of Standards. It is extracted from dahlias and from Jerusalem artichoke, the latter an exceedingly common weed of the wild sunflower family that grows abundantly in low, n-.uisl places too wet for profitable crop cultivation. Levulosp is chemically closely related to glucose, which is the sugqr forming the base of most, table syrups now used. The bureau has formerly been able to produce a levulo.se syrup, but has now succeeded also in extracting a pure crvstalline sugar suitable for table use. PECULIAR PROPERTIES OF IRON. Iron is not usually thought of as a substance capable of forming crystals but it does so. “ Flaws ” in iron are usually due to the presence of masses of small crystals which may be seen as a “ grain ’ at the point of breakage. Two British scientists have succeeded in producing large crystals of iron, as much as four by one and one-quarter liv one-eighth inches in size. The strong by one 1 inches in size. The strength timt of an ordinary piece of iron, which is made up of small crystals irregularly arranged. They arc so brittle that a light tap with a hammer breaks them, but they can be rolled out to one hundred times their length without cracking or breaking. DYING EXPLORER LEAVES RECORDS. The last records of an explorer lost in the desert in Africa forty-live years ago have just been discovered. In 1870 Friedrich Rolfs undertook to cross the Lyhian Desert, one of the most barren and pitiless wastes in the world He never was heard of again. This year an expedition sent out by Prince Ketnal ed Din found a cairn of stones, and when they took it apart discovered within it a sealed bottle containing u manuscript. The latter proved to l*o the records of the lost explorer. These were forwarded to Germany, and were found to contain scientific data of considerable interest and value.