Men & Atoms

The deep-set eyes of Professor Arthur Holly Compton, Presbyterian and Nobel Prize physicist, darkled last week as he told a Manhattan audience that he and his University of Chicago associates will soon begin an intensive effort not only to break the hearts of atoms but also to create new atoms out of rambling electricity. These experiments may well become historic. Among the probers into the tough little universe of the atom, Professor Compton ranks with the most dexterous; and he has the great wealth and equipment of the University of Chicago at command.

If he could duplicate on earth the 40.000.000DEG C. at which the sun's centre boils, he might do what he wished with electrons and protons. At that temperature matter's subunits dance around each other and coalesce as atoms; atoms break up into their electron and proton elements; and every explosion, every coalescence scatters atomic energy. Professor Compton cannot duplicate solar heat, but with a mighty X-ray tube, he calculates, he can drive particles of matter at speeds so nearly solar that new atoms will result. His tool will be a 10,000-volt tube, five times the size of the tube whose description won the American Association for the Advancement of Science's $1,000 prize. If Professor Compton does eventually create or break up atoms, next great problem will be: How to use the energy thus released? All this exposition showed the pragmatic scientist in Professor Compton. He also took pains to show himself a Presbyterian idealist by declaring his creed: "I believe that the very existence of the amazing world of the atom points to a purposeful creation, to the idea that there is a God and an intelligent purpose back of everything. A survey of the Universe indicates that mankind is very possibly nature's best achievement."

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