Geologists Get an Extension of TimeSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Mar., 1923), pp. 329-331Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/6484 .

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THE PROGRESS 0O1 SCIENCE 329

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE CURRENT COMMENT

By DR. EDWIN E. SLOSSON

Science Service, Washinigton

(EOLOGI,STS GET AN EXTEN- SION OF TIME

Ti:iRE was a deadlock between the astronomers and geologists at the beginninlg of this cenitury. The geol- ogists, having been converted to evo- luition by Darwin, needed lots of time for the development of the varied forms of life by the gradual process of natural selection, the only process they knew. Then, too, they figured out that it must have taken at least 300,000,000 years to lay the sedimentary rocks and to miiake the ocean as salt as it is. Man, who is one of the latest settlers on this planet, seems to have been here more than 250,000 years, and the earliest fossils are buried so deep that anii- mal life must have existed somle 60,000,000 years at the lowest esti- mate.

But here the astronomers and phys- icists interposed a veto on the geolo- gists andl paleontologists; ''You can 't have anything like such a lenigth of time," they said, "for the earth was a molten niass lonig after the time when you say life began, anid was a fiery gas-ball lonig after you talk of oceans. The earth is the offsprinig of the sun anid the sunl itself is only 20,000,000 yeairs old.l'

This timne limit was the estim-ate of Lord Kelvin, based upoll the idea that the sun 's heat came from its contractioni by gravitationi, for nio other source of its heat was surmiiised at that time. Ile figured out that if all the particles of matter that make up the suni had fallen together from an inifinite distance the heat produced by their impact would niot be miiore than eniough to keep the sun radiatinig

at its preseint rate for more tlha twenty million years.

If, lowever, somebody should dis- cover another and more abundant source of heat than the shrinkage of the sun, then, of course, the astron- omers would be willing to grant the geologists an extension of time for the buildinig up of the world and its inhabitanits.

Well, somebody did discover an uin- known source of heat abundaiit enough to satisfy the most extreme demaiids of the astroniomers. This was Madame Curie with her radium, a, metal that is continually giving off heat from a secret store within its atom. It appeared then that some of the heavy elements in breakinig down into lighter ones, as radiui breaks down inito lead andi helium, give off large amounts of heat for thousanids of years. It was later founcd that atoms of a light element miiight comiibine together to form a heavier eliment and likewise give off Ihetit in ii-miense quanitities. For iiistaiice, if a pound of hydrogen were to condense to form helium the resulting heliumn would weigh a little less than a pounid, bult there woulld be given off as much heat as would be produced by the burning of 0 ],000 tolns of coal. Unfortunately nio way is known of

workinlg this process, so it will not help) ius out in this winter 's coal shiortage but it has helped the as- tiroiioiiers and geologists out of their dilemina. For the astronomers, hav- ing uow a source of heat sufficient to keep the sULI1l anid stars a-going for as lonig as eveni they can imagine, can ff ord to be generous with the geolo-

gists in the inatter of time. Pro- fessor E ddinigton, of Camibridge, miade this coiceession handsomely wahenl lie said recently:

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THE PROGRESS OQF SCIENCE 331

"'Lord Kelvin 's estimate of the ex- tenit of geological time neecl not now h e takeni any more seriouisly than Archlbishop Ussher 's anid the geolo- gist may claiiii anytlhing up to ten thousanid million vears without pro- -okinig a murimur fromn astronomers.'"

This liberal allowaniee ought to satisfy time geologists, especially simmec tliev have learned from Mendel that e-olutioni may proceecl by jumps in- stea(l of by the slow accumulatiomi of limiute variatiomls whiclh Darwimi hald imi minld.

HIGHWAYS OF KNOWLEDGE THE first need of a backward

e ountry is better commutideations, roads aiid railroads, telegraphs and telephoiies, so the separated settle- mleiits of the wilderniiess can get into touch i with each other.

This world is a wilderness, secat- tered oases of civilization in vast areas of ignoranee. Thinkers arC few ancd far apart. Intercommunication of ideas is retarded, often stopped altogether, by the harrier of lan- guage as traffic is interfered with by a change of rail gauge at the fron- tier. Eveen in the same country minids of different trainiiig fail to gear. It dloes inot matter so much if we (o1 not kiow '"how the other half lives," bLut it is of the highest importance that we know how the other half thinks, especially that smaller fraction of huimanitv which is thinkinig for the next centuiry, naimelv, scientific inves- tigators.

The amount of kniowledge accumu- lated dur ing the last three huncdred years sinee man began the systematic inv-estigation of iiaturc looks large compared with the ignoranee that preceded, but looks small when we compare it with what nobody yet knows. What is worse, this precious andl pailnfully acquired knowledge is contained in a few small andl perish- able packages. I do lnot meani books, I meaai brains. We say ''klnowledge is power'" hut the kniowledge that lies in libraries lhas aio mor e power than

unminecd coal. Can that be called "'knowledge'' which nobody knows l If all the books in the wvorld were sulddenly destroyedl how miiuch learni- inig would be left e Ancd how mauiy heads would be holding it?

Professor J. Arthur Thomsoni, of the University of Aberdeeni, puts the point in his usual effective fashion when lie says in his book on ' The Control of Life ": " When we thiiik of the more effective anid less waste- fuil exploration of the earth, or of gatlherin g the harvest of the sea, or of making occupations more whole- somne, or beautifying human sur- rounidinigs, or of exterminating infec- tious diseases, or raisiing the health rate, or of improving the physique of the race, or of recoginizing the physi- ological side of education, we are amazed at the non-utilizationi of val- tiable-though confessedly incom- plete-scientific knowledge. Much has been done, but it must be con- fessed that maii has been slow to follow science in the possession of his kingdom. Part of the reason is that we have not become accustomed, ex- cept in some directions, c. g., medical treatment, to believe in science; but a great part of the reason is a defi- ciency of character, that we do not car e enough, that we lack resolu- tioii. ''

That is plain speaking ancd goes to the bottom of the difficulty. It is "'deficiency of character, that we do not care enough" to even learn what little lhas been learned about the man- agement of matter and especially the management of mankind. Science mlay be discovered by the few, but it has to be applied by the many.

Waste of energy, waste of iiatural resources, waste of life, waste of time, all forms of waste go back to the waste of ideas. For there is already enough wisdom in the world to make the whole human iaee more comfortable, healthy anid prosperous tbaii any individcuals have so far been. Blut lio country is yet thor- ouglylv civilized, eveii fromii the staiud-

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