CREATION BY EVOLUTION 



revolve a few or many planetary electrons in one, two or 

 several shells, each capable of housing a definite number. 

 Only the electrons in the outermost shell determine the chem- 

 ical characteristics of the various atoms of the elements. 



Some of the most complex atoms, such as those of uranium, 

 thorium, and radium, are radioactive; that is, there is a sort 

 of unrest in the nucleus which operates to break down the 

 equilibrium existing among the protons and electrons and 

 results in the shooting off, at tremendous velocity, of electrons 

 and of groups of protons and electrons from the nucleus. 

 The so-called Alpha rays given off by radioactive substances 

 are composed of particles identical with the stripped nuclei 

 of the helium atom, one of the lightest and simplest atoms. 

 The emission of these rays is nothing more or less than a 

 process of evolution of elements, one element becoming 

 transformed into another. By radioactive disintegration the 

 most complex elements, such as uranium, thorium, and 

 radium, are reduced slowly and by distinct steps to elements 

 of less complexity and greater stability. Thus when an atom 

 of radium loses one Alpha particle it is reduced to radon, 

 an extremely inert gaseous element. Radon goes over by 

 another step into polonium and lead, and radioactive lead, 

 by a further change involving the capture of another electron, 

 becomes the element bismuth. 



Physicists are just at the beginning of their program of 

 transforming the elements or atoms into one another, and 

 doubtless their future research will disclose many startling 

 transformations. The evidence so far available points to the 

 conclusion that what we once considered the most fixed, the 

 most immutable units of the universe are far from stable — 

 they are undergoing orderly transmutation from more com- 

 plex to simpler forms. The transmutation seems very slow 

 to us, but expressed in terms of cosmic time it is really rapid. 



[360] . ^ 



