CREATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 July 1925, Page 4

CREATION.

I NURLAN IF EVOLUTION. (|Vv Canopus in Sydney "Herald.’'’) Undoubtedly one ill tile must e.svlul aids to the scientist lias been tlm spectroscope, (oiisisting ol little nioie than a triangular prism, with a small telescope on either side to receive and direct the light rays as they enter and emerge Irom the glass, the results achieved by its use have been little short ef marvellous. Ily no means the least interesting ol these results lias been the hinvalion of a theory by \\ hieli we are a'-le to describe, will, ijuilc round Inundations ol our stui

meals, the mode el origin ol *mr eartli. The id i iff property ol the spent rnseope IS its power of detecting infinitely -mail masses of matter by means of the particular kind ol light given out hv that matter when in an incandescent state. As little as a. millionth of n milligram may he detected with absolute certainly, and, moreover, it makes no dillerence whether the matter he close HI hand or billions of miles away. Thus the spectroscope, b.v analysing the light Irom. distant stars, lias told us the composition of those heavenly bodies. - The method of identifying the various elements is beautiful in its simplicity. Ordinary white light, is not, as we rl! know, a light of one colour, but i- compos,d o| seven primary colours red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. When a ray ol sunlight is passed through the spectroscope. the insl l utit'•!>t separates these colours so flint they form a variegated

hand, with the led at one end and the violet at the other. All incandescent solids and lipoids, and s-mv dome ga- 's, give stub a continuous band of coloured light for tlmir "spectrum.” lint a substance which has been highly volatilised gives a spectrum of a dillere.ut kind. Instead of a continuous band, its spectrum consists only of a series of vertical lines of definite colour, some. suv. in the led section of an ordinary spectrum and some, perhaps, in the yellow or blue section. These lines are (p'ite distinct, and are separated hv definite spaces. Since no two elements give ilie same spectrum, and since the vuiito element, under the same conditions, always gives exactly He same spectrum with the colour lines in the same relative

positions, it is quite easy to determine the composition of any substance by noting the particular elements indicated in its spectrum. Now it is a remarkable thing that when starlight is submitted to spectroscopy, the composition of the stellar bodies is found to depend entirely upon their t'.'iunerature. The stars, of course. like our sun, are in a slate of incandesf once, hut their temperature varies tremendously. In stars of the lowest temperature (roughly about 10.0(10 degrees Fali.l. we hud the same elements as we have on earth. In the stars of medium temperature, ranging from about 20.00') to iO.OOO degrees Fall., we find that the heavier metals, as wo know them gradually become disassociated, and their spectra disappear as the temperature rises:, while the proportion of light gases, such as helium and hydrogen, becomes greater. But when we analyse the spectra of the hotte-t stars, whose temperature reaches up to ah.mi 00,000 degres Fall.

we f;nd only the clement hydrogen, the lightest and simplest of all our earthly elements, and a till simpler substance which we call proto-hydrogen. Surely this can only mean one thing, that the heavier and more complex ele-

ments have been evolved gradually from one fundamental substance as n fall in tempera Lure lias allowed them to form. Bv such inorganic evolution have the varying elements of mir on rift come into existence. Billions of years have been required to bring ,‘fbout the change, hut what are a billion years in the liistorv ui time? If e live today on the essence of a star. But if inorganic evolution has brought our earth to its present stage, what will he the end 7 The answer is, “There is no end.” Let mo explain. It is true that many stars are slowly growing cooler, but it is equally true that many others are gradually becoming hotter, and the materials of their composition are devolved to simpler forms. How this may come about has been explained by Sir Norman l.ockver, whose brilliant astronomical work has had the admiration of seientsists. Mis theory is as follows: The history of the star begins with an enormous number of solid particles of matter, meteorites, which have come

together by gravitational attraction. Though cold, the constant collision between them as they move through space slowly raises their temperature. This goes on through long ages until the whole mass is converted to gas at the highest possible temperature. Since there are now no more particles to collide with each other, the future history of the star is a cooling mass, which at length reaches tlie stage of a cold, dead sphere. Disintegration may then occur, and the dead star will liecome once more a swarm of solid lumps

of matter, and in course of time will again take its place in the heavens as a brilliant incandescent body. Thus a star may he immortal ; it dies, hut undergoes resurrection. In the formation of complex elements from simple forms by inorganic

evolution, we see a great ro.-omhlnncti to the various stages of organic evclutimy. Are these two things, then. quire separate from each other i (he! life suddenly make its appearame on; of. nothing whcn_ t.omi’nfrani.v ,r ~, toad fallen to a suitable stage IIt may have done so, lnit the great laws of continuity in nature surely casts tlouht mi such an assumption. And is it just a remarkable coincidence that the elements constituting all living matter are the elements which compose the sea and the air. when all biologists and gologists know that life on earth originated in the sea .* Surely organic evolution is just one of the last stages of inorganic evolution, occurring between the temperature range of the boiling and freezing points of water. If such he the case, and there is no scientific reason against it, we may indeed pride ourselves upon noble birth, for sttrelv we are children of (he slat's.