NEW SCIENCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 February 1926, Page 4

NEW SCIENCE.

AMERICAN RESEARCH

SAN FRANCISCO, December 30.

The achievements of science in 1925 were increased by three discoveries, announced in New York ns the \ear entered its last week. The Princeton University, through the medium of Dr \Y. B. Scott, the eminent paheoutolo„jst and geologist, claimed to have settled a question that had divided scientists since 1891 by proving that the “ Java man” found thirty-four years ago was a true link in the chain of mail’s evolution from the lowest forms of life.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that one ot its professors had discovered a means ol making from beef serum a protein food which can be used as food as a substitute for the white ol egg and which als i provides a cheap waterproofing and adhesive material.

Harvard University announced simultaneously the solution of the ancient mystery of the Mayan calendar, it having found that the Central American Indians of the sixth century before Christ were excellent astronomers and calculated time by the movements of the planet Venus. One of the discoveries, at least, was developed from the slightest of clues. Dr Eugene Du Hois, a Dutch army surgeon, ioitntl part ot a skull, a thigh

hone and two teeth on the banks o! tile Beligv.an Rlgt in -lava ill l"91. Discussion a- to whobker the bone fragments were those of an one or true man was begun immediately. Far years Dr Du Hois threw a veil ol secrecy around ins discoveries. A piaster cast of the skull was .sent Lo Princeton recently. Da Stott says of it that a re-exami-nation indicates to Princeton scientists beyond a douhl that pithecanthropus was distinctly a human "of very low grade.” Poston's new food product, is the result of an experiment, by Dr J. AY. M. Danker, in the biological laboratories of the Institute of Technology. Ii is made from the globulin and albumin content ol heel and is produced in the form ol a golden powder. CHEAP EGGS. A quantity ot the new loud equalling tlie albumin content ol the white ol an egg can he produced tor halt a cent, virtually a farthing. Mixed with egg volks it can make omelets and scrambled eggs.

The solution of tiie Mayan calendar, which lias puzzled scientists for years, is the culmination of long work. Dr Herbert .1. Spimlen, of Harvard. discovered the secret of Mayan time count, based on tiie appearance ol Venus as the morning and evening star, lie set about calculating Hu true astronomical positions ot \ onus in the sixtli century before Christ and compared them with dates on the calonda r.

lie found that the ancient .Mayans were so accurate in their calculations that allowances were made for the (lays inserted hv modern people in leap years to offset the fraction of a day over 395 in each trip of the earth around the

King Quet/.aleonti, of the Mayas, or Plumed .Serpent, noted the movements of Venus accurately, and his scientific knowledge was so highly regarded by bis fellow Mayans that they deiiied him after his death. A Sil.it A DISCOVERY.

I’romieiiee is given to all aiiimuuecmmi;. i hat a considerable decrease will soon lie reali-ed in the cost ol producing steel, refining petroleum and in tvI rigi ration, which was predicted by Dr AY. A. Patrick, professor of chemistry at. John Hopkins University. Haiti-

more. Mr Patrick based his prediction upon the practical application now being tca.dc of a substance he invented during the World War. known as silica gel, a collodinl silica, which possesses great absorbent qualities. Mr Patrick said a steel mill in Kngland is using the process successfully and that the I'nited States Steel Curpnralinn has plan-, under way tu install the new' system in one of its plants. A Xew Kugland company is nianttfaetuiim; telrigerator cars based upon ti t:- use of -ilit it gel and the Paul-horn. Xi w .)t‘ise\. plant of the Standard Oil Company is using the new material in the refinement ul petroleum, he declared. Silica gel is made with water glass and acids. It forms a substance which resembles coarse sand, hut contains innut: -arable pares wi line that they c annot he seen (wen under the best microscope. I'Ywni the absorbent qualities of the substance he estimates that the turlaee ol these pares in one gram of silica gel would cover half an acre. Dr Patrick said the new product would also make it possible to obtain gasoline from natural gas tit slight expense. and benzine from coke oven gas. These uses by no means exhaust its possibilities, he mentioned, for in the manufacture ul' steel, he said, silica gel had increased output 10 per cent., and decreased the cost of coke l > per cent. By far the greatest volume ol substance passing through a blast litrinice. he explained, is air. ahum fid.(tot) cubic, feet of which passes through it good-sized furnace every minute of operation.

In the refining of petroleum, he said, it had been found that the use of silica gel in removing the sulphur-hearing constituents and glim-forming compounds was it cheaper and more efficient. method than any yet devised. I'hose are either distilled out of the Alien gel and recaptured or burned nut. the gel remaining uninjured. ihe principle involved in refrigeration, T)r Patrick said, is equally simple. Physicists for many years have produced ice in lit bora tones by [lumping oil' with a vacuum, pump the vapour arising from water. SKX A XT) ft Ii AFT IXO.

I'tom N’eivhavon, Connecticut, comes ’••-■e statement that since time immemorial the chameleon has changed it-' colour hut it remained for the salamander. aided by science, to he the first creature to change- its sex, the American Society of Zoologists learned during the first meeting of iLs two day session at Yale I'niversitv.

Other scientific achievements reported at the morning session were the suecessfitl transplantation of hearts and eyes front one species of salamander to another and the amputation of forelimhs from living rat embryos while still unborn.

Dr Hubert K. Burns, of the I'niverstt.v ot (Tneinntti. read n paper reporting the results of experiments in grafting different species of salamanders in the manner ot Siamese twins while still in the egg stage. The sex of the stronger invariably predominated to the exclusion of the sex of the weaker in such fusions, he demonstrated.