THE SEARCH FOR PRIMAL MATTER 



sandth of a gram of his spontaneously active sub- 

 stances might go on radiating for a million years 

 before it would be possible to detect a difference 

 in its weight; though more recent experiments of 

 Heydweiler and Landoldt make this doubtful. The 

 German investigators believe they are able to meas- 

 ure the loss per twenty-four hours. If their results 

 are correct, then the radio-active substances no 

 longer present an apparent contradiction of the law 

 of the conservation of energy. 



Such, in broad outline, is the far-reaching role 

 which these chips of atoms appear to play. When 

 it is remembered that their existence even was 

 hardly suspected a year or so ago, it will be seen 

 that the unexplored fields of science are not yet 

 exhausted, and that the work of the new century 

 has not unworthily begun. 



