THE ORIGIN OF LIFE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 261, 28 June 1932, Page 6

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE

YOUNG SCIENTIST DISCOVERS NEW REMARKABLE RAY. IRRESISTIBLE POWER. Experiments now being carried out at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, England, may alter the whole scientific conception of the universe. They are at a near approach to the greatest of all discoveries — the origin of matter — which would ultimately lead to the explanation of the origin of life. Dr. J. Chadwick, a young assistant director in radio-activity at the laboratory, has located' and defined the nature of hitherto unknown rays, which travel with incx,,edible speed. The rays, according to the xneasux'ements and photographic tests, are neither waves, protons nor electrons (the two components of the atom), but something entirely new. Their effects are due neither to vibx-a-tion xxor to positive or negative electric charges. Nothing can stop them. They will pass through many feet of lead axxd travel onwards into space. "We do not know yet quite where we stand," said Dr. Chadwick. "Until our experiments have been carried further I cannot say anything as to the definite results of the discovery, hut we are hopeful." Scientists in Cambridge think that what has been found is the ultimate particle of matter — the constituent of everything. If that is so, scientific knowledge of what makes and rules the universe may extend into hitherto unexplored directions.