264 Miracles Ahead! 



cal processes they will synthesize materials by designing the 

 right kind of atom and making it in their laboratories. 



The electrons that make radio broadcasting possible will 

 help the chemist. They will serve as catalysts, speeding up 

 chemical reactions by electronic bombardment of molecules. 

 This new science of "chemotronics" promises to knock the 

 "im" out of impossible and produce a lot of "chemical silk 

 purses" out of sows' ears. 



Harnessing the Sun's Rays 



Lifting our eyes toward the source of power, we now give 

 attention to man's old dream of harnessing sunlight. We have 

 used the sun's rays to generate steam. And we have made 

 considerable progress using the solar energy stored up in coal 

 and oil, as well as that from the wind and falling water. 



"Up to the present, however," declared James F. Hunt of 

 Du Pont, "a mule which eats hay and corn and converts these 

 materials into the energy necessary to draw a wagon or a 

 plough is the best solar engine yet devised. One of these days, 

 however, some bright fellow may hit upon a really good way 

 to harness sunlight directly, and his fortune will be assured. 

 That is what you might call hitching your wagon to a star 

 in a big way! " 



Several "bright fellows" are working on this problem and 

 getting somewhere. The photovoltaic cell, which in one form 

 is composed of iron coated with selenium and gold, produces 

 electricity from light rays. A number of these cells will gen- 

 erate enough electricity to run a small electric motor. 



"Perhaps the day will come," said James Stokley in Science 

 Remakes Our World, "when sun-drenched desert areas of 

 earth will be covered with such cells, turning light into elec- 

 tricity for the use of the world." 



