THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 19, 1937.
In the
the stratosphere or miles undersea, science couldn't get away from them, or catch
"
Mysterious
T
They
them
Cosmic
Rays
THE electroscopes began it. was affecting the apparatus, then They were fragments of atoms death groans of old atoms in
or they could rate the intensity of the blasted out of the metal by the im- cess of being consumed. They wouldn't behave
Neither theory stands any longer. perhaps they couldn't. It became bombardment directly in terms of pact of cosmic rays.
The cloud tracks of these parti- necessary to find out what was ail- the behaviour of the gold-leaf.
So tests were made. An elec- cles were so nearly straight lines Both were built on the supposition ing them, or whether an electros- cope was really the sober law-abid- troscope was completely insulated, that it was impossible to tell from that the rays were a form of radi- ing trustee and holder of electricity and isolated from all known sour- which side of the chamber they ori- ant energy. Now, with the discovery it was supposed to be, or something ces of electrification. Then it was ginated. The powerful magnet was that at least a large proportion of Theoretically, it ought not strong enough to deflect them cosmic rays are charged particles else quite different. Out of such charged. detective work a new presence was to hold that charge indefinitely. perceptibly, but Anderson hit on the travelling at speeds approaching the discovered, a strange, invisible, but But after a few days the gold-leaf strategem of inserting a plate of velocity of light each loses its superlatively active demon of en- began to droop, and eventually its lead in the centre of the chamber. point. Moreover, both theories were ergy the ubiquitous cosmic ray. charge had disappeared.: Trial Thereafter the ejected particles founded on the low estimates of
no had to pass through this barrier, cosmic-ray energies current seven :- Ubiquitous, says my dictionary, after trial demonstrated that
or isolation and in doing so some of their or eight years ago The enormous - means "everywhere present." That amount of insulation
It energy was absorbed; consequently energy values actually measured describes cosmic rays. They beat would stop this strange loss. upon the Earth from every direc- was called "the natural leakage," they emerged from the lead with cannot be accounted for by any tion. Nothing is exempt from and physicists were able to com- lessened speed, and during the re- known process. their toll. No creature is immune pute its magnitude and allow for mainder of their journey the mag- unknown net was able to deflect them more to their prying darts. While you it. But computing an have been reading these paragraphs does not explain it, and many were noticeably. In this way, he photo several hundred cosmic rays have plowed through your body.
wwwwwww
CEL
By George W. Gray
Sof the universe
But maybe it isn't any process now at work that is responsible for
ed particle were struck off, once for cosmic rays: possibly the enchant all, long ago in the beginning of the world. That's the nub of an idea proposed by the Belgian cosmolo- Metals are hammered into atomic
gist, Georges Lemaitre Astronom eruption by their impacts, and what may happen to the lighter
the speculations on this odd be graphed cloud tracks whose curves ers report that the remote outside atoms of flesh and blood we
indicated energies of thousands of galaxies, so far as we can measure haviour. only surmise. Cosmic rays may
millions of electron-volts, and mea- their speeds with our most power- be benefactors, the aiders and abet- The World War arrived shortly sured for the first time the energy ful spectrographs, are unanimously running away at high velocities. tors of life, or they may be des after these events, and further in- values of the activating rays. troyers, the insidious enemy of all vestigation was set aside by the The greatest mystery is the This universal inflation or expan that breathe, or they may be of no more insistent demands of the
source of this incessant bombard- sion started about 3000: million biological consequence we do Great Madness. Perhaps if any of ment. At first it was suggested years ago according to recent cal not know. The speculation, how the military minds had been aware that the rays were the surplus culation. Prior to that, says Le- ever, gives to the mysterious radia of the tremendous energies resid-
emitted by atom-building maitre, all the mass energy tion a temptingly personal aspect. ent in cosmic rays, they might have processes in the remote nebulae was concentrated in a single enor It provides for our table talk a new been captivated by the possibility. Optimists welcomed this assurance mous atom, and the stampede be and tantalizing if. Instead of of harnessing the rays for war pur that creative evolution was still at gan when this unique atom explod blaming our tempers and other poses, and research might have ad- work beyond the Milky Way. But ed. The stars and the nebulae are
the vanced still farther. For while idiosyncrasies on the heat or
not left resource the massive fragments and con- pessimists were humidity or the depression, we the total amount of heat brought less. There was provided, on equal- glomerations of that primordial an annihilation fire-works. And the cosmic ray — may find in the cosmic rays a new to the Earth by cosmic rays is less ly sound authority, alibi. Possibly evolution is speed than that of starlight, the energy theory. Cosmic rays, said the anni- they are the atomie dust and debris ed by the incessant bombardment of the individual ray is unbeliey hilationists, are not the birth cries of the explosion. The idiot may be the casualty of ably great. Thus, when a cannon of new atoms; instead they are some cosmic-ray collision with the ball is moving at its greatest velo- living atoms of heredity and sim- city, the energy of its motion aver- ilarly the genius may be the acci-
ages less than one electron-volt per dental outcome of a more fortun- atom-but cosmic-ray encounters ate mutilation. It has even been recently photographed show that suggested by one authority that some of the rays are endowed with the crust of the Earth raay be the energies of ten thousand million product of the cosmic-ray's batter- electron-volts and more. Imagine ing of primeval metals a theory cosmic rays concentrated into which would give to the radiation beam!
ce in the moulding of
water- round
a primary place in
In 1932 a more exact method worlds and therefore of planetary of measurement than had been pos features, including man
sible before was attained by Carl You may wonder that this bom- D. Anderson, and with it came bardment could gozon for untold
great discovery. ages, and only yesterday be dis- Anderson made use of an Eng covered. • Our knowledge of cosmic fish invention known as the Wilson rays is a thing of the 20th century; cloud chamber, a device in which it dates back hardly twenty-five microscopic droplets of years; and, as I have said, the elec- vapour are caused to cluster troscopes began it.
invisible speeding electrified parti A cal's back is a familiar form cles. The path of each moving of electroscope. But cats are tem- mote is thereby rendered visible as peramental, and for reliable labora- a streak of cloud, and may be photo tory.service the pioneer electricians graphed. Anderson placed his cloud invented the gold-leaf electroscope. chamber between the poles of a It was this gold leaf electroscope powerful electro-magnet, and in that the early explorers of radium this magnetic field the particle was turned to as an aid to their re- swerved one way if it carried a post- searches. Radium is perpetually, tive electric charge and another shooting out its gamma rays; these
if its change was negative. Is
rays smash the air particles they either case, the higher the energy collide with, thus electrifying the
the
ticle, the swifter was its particles and causing them to flow speed and the greater its ability to the gold-leaf and discharge it to resist the pull of the The radiologists found that the Therefore, the degree of the time required for the gold-leaf to described by the streak wa
lex to settle down was an index to the
When this
intensity of the radium rays.-
But was it a precise indi
If they could be sure that
charge was due solely to
energy.
rson found darting
cla
trical particles actuate
radium, and that-no other Influence greater than 10
It's as educated a guess as any.
"D. C. L."
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