10 CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE 



ture, our solar system, with a positive particle of electricity 

 for its sun, and negative particles (electrons) to repre- 

 sent the planets. 



The more recent activities in physics and chemistry 

 have mainly focussed themselves on elucidating the struc- 

 ture of the atom. The successive stages in the develop- 

 ment of these researches are summed up by Professor 

 Millikan, the master in the measurement of the electron. 



The latest, and so far the most probable, hypothesis of 

 the structure of the atom is that due to Dr. Langmuir. 



The breaking up of the atom is accompanied by the 

 release of enormous quantities of energy. If a catalyzer 

 could be found to accelerate such a reaction, then the solu- 

 tion of the problem, the Energy of the Future, would be 

 in sight. So far we have not been able either to acceler- 

 ate or to retard radium disintegration, though Professor 

 Rutherford, of Cambridge, has recently been successful in 

 breaking up the nitrogen into hydrogen atoms by means 

 of alpha particles obtained from radium. Chemists and 

 engineers are busy casting their eyes upon objects other 

 than fossilised wood, because of our prodigal expenditure 

 of the coal resources of the earth. In this connection Sir 

 Charles Parsons, English engineer, suggests sources of 

 energy that have so far been neglected. 



Not without reason has the Great War been called the 

 Chemists' War, yet there is an element of injustice in the 

 name. The layman assumes, from the activities of the 

 chemist during the seven critical years from which we are 

 emerging, that the function of this type of scientist is to 

 destroy, just as the function of the physician, on the 

 other hand, is to heal. I say this opinion of the chemist 

 is an unjust one. He cannot be blamed if the weapons he 

 forges are misused. The several varieties of the nitro com- 

 pounds that form the series of modern explosives are in- 

 dispensable in the building of a Panama Canal ; and the 

 very gas that has tortured the bodies of thousands of in- 

 nocent youngsters saved the lives of thousands during the 



