BIRTH OF THE ELEMENTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 457, 17 April 1912, Page 7

BIRTH OF THE ELEMENTS.

+ It is an old question, "Are the seventy-odd chemical elements really elementary, or are they compoundel af something still more elementary ?' ■ln the light of recent discoveries, an eminent scientist has reverted to a theory advocated. by him many years ago, that, as the planets were evolved out of the original nebulae gave birth to the solar system, the chemical elements themselves \v\ also evolved out of something fai Less complex than themselves. fact that existing nebulae are simple in composition, while stars in \ arious stages of evolution exhibit moic and more complexity, until, in soli dified bodies, like the earth, a greal number of chemical elements with a myriad of compounds are found, if regarded as strongly supporting thij theory. The phenomena of radiun led to the additional suggestion tha< as in the development of the cnP bodies we seem to see the growth o' the elements, so in radioactivity w( witness their decay.