78 Can Science Explain Life? 



Whether migration of ions can take place 

 through the interstices in the sides of the polyg- 

 onal compartments or only through their open 

 ends cannot be definitely answered, but it is not 

 unlikely that it can take place either way. Spira- 

 zines being formed like coiled springs, a bundle 

 of them may be drawn out lengthwise whereupon 

 the openings in the sides may become about as 

 large as the openings through the ends, which will 

 be amply sufficient to permit the migration of ions 

 therethrough. Such openings will not, however, 

 be large enough to permit the free flow of the solu- 

 tion therethrough. This will be apparent when it 

 is considered that a single polygonal compartment 

 measures only about ten Angstrom units (10 X 

 10" 8 cm) across, and that small molecules or ions 

 measure about two or three Angstrom units 

 across. 



Whenever migration of ions takes place through 

 openings as narrow as these, the movements of 

 the ions will be strongly affected by the electric 

 fields of the atoms forming the margins of the 

 openings. The distances through which these 

 electric fields can act effectively can be calculated 

 from Van der Waal's equation and will be found 

 to be just about sufficient to span the distance 

 from the periphery of one of the polygonal com- 

 partments to its center. Since the spirazines 



