RESEARCH
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New research programmes, as well as projects begun in previous years, were conducted in the Faculty of Science. In the Department of Botany studies of the ecology of soil fungi in Hong Kong were continued as well as the survey of the air spora in relation to climatic conditions. The Department of Physics continued research on the ionosphere using the Faraday rotation of signals from earth satellites. The work on cosmic ray intensities using a counter telescope reached the end of the first phase. Marine physics research commenced on the sediments of the inshore waters near Hong Kong. An ‘asdic' system was used to produce acoustic maps of the sea bed. The results to date are most promising and reveal interesting geophysical features.
The Department of Zoology conducted research along several lines. A team of workers carried out research into various aspects of form and function of the adrenal gland of vertebrates. Other investigations were continued with the collaboration of members of St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, London, involving long-term study of the breeding cycles of snakes and mammals obtainable in Hong Kong. A programme of research into the parasites of local mammals was conducted in collaboration with the Bishop Museum of Honolulu and a survey of the mammals of Hong Kong was also carried out.
In the Faculty of Medicine research programmes included the pattern of growth and development of Chinese children and youth by cross-sectional and longitudinal (serial) studies, and the relation- ship of the human body to its environment in the Department of Anatomy. About 10,000 children from birth to 18 years of age were studied in detail and followed in the past three years children of school age in 16 schools and two institutions, and infants and pre-school children in Harcourt Maternal and Child Health Centre. The aims of this major research undertaking are to establish, on a valid mathematical basis, the standards of the growth and develop- ment of Chinese children at each age level, the standards and range of the velocity of growth, the pattern of growth and development of the Chinese, height for skeletal maturity status-a more reliable and meaningful method of assessment than the conventional height for age standards, the changes of body proportion during the growing period, and the prediction of adult size from size in children. All these aspects of the growth and development of the Chinese