Academicians at Rochester

It was too cold in upstate New York last week to go around without a heavy overcoat. In the University of Rochester's Strong Auditorium, although the inside temperature was comfortable, the audience felt sympathetically chilly when two scientists told how they had shivered in the interests of scientific research. The two were big Eugene F. DuBois of Cornell University Medical College and small James D. Hardy of the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology.

Drs. DuBois & Hardy had decided to find out more about the body's mechanisms for mitigating heat and cold--that is, to establish the temperature zones in which various reactions occur. Every morning one or the other arrived at the laboratory at 9 o'clock, without breakfast, and undressed slowly to avoid dissipating heat because of muscular exertion. Then he entered a calorimeter, an insulated cabinet in which the temperature could be controlled over a range of 72DEG to 96DEG, and in which the amount of heat radiated by the naked body could be measured. Findings:

1) Above 90DEG the naked body begins to sweat. The flow of blood to the skin, bringing excess heat to be radiated, may be five or six times normal. Even so, if the subject exercises, he may not be able to eliminate heat fast enough and his temperature may rise four or five degrees.

2) At 83DEG to 90DEG the body is comfortable, and the mind, released from preoccupation with heat adjustment, is free to attend to other matters.

3) Below 83DEG the capillary blood vessels have constricted as much as they can to prevent the radiation of heat from the skin and the body begins to shiver.

Except for shivering, a human being has no protection against cold. When a newshawk asked Dr. Hardy if "goose pimples" were not a protection, the scientist replied that those protuberances were a relic of the days when the ancestors of men were covered by thick hair. The gooseflesh served to fluff the body hair into a more efficient heat-insulating covering.

These investigations were reported to the National Academy of Sciences which, with a membership limited to 300, is the most exclusive national body of scientists in the U. S. The attendance at the Rochester meeting last week was scanty, only 37 scholars registering. Of 37 papers no less than 24 were delivered by faculty-men of the rich (Eastman-endowed) and prestige-hungry University of Rochester. Highlights:

Colchicine. The major plant hormones already known are Auxins A and B and heteroauxin (TIME, Oct.11). Dr. Albert Francis Blakeslee, distinguished geneticist of the Carnegie Institution, reported discovery of a new plant hormone which he calls colchicine. It increases the growth rate of tobacco, phlox, onions, pumpkins, cosmos, radishes, portulaca, digitalis, jimson weed. The growth acceleration seems to be related to a doubling of certain segments of the chromosomes, heredity carriers in the germplasm. Colchicine also renders hybrid plants--which are normally sterile--fertile. Dr. Blakeslee pointed out that this action is as important in plant science as it would be in zoology to confer the power of reproduction on a mule.

Enterocrinin is a new intestinal secretory hormone whose discovery was announced by Physiologist E. S. Nasset of the University of Rochester. Several hormones are known which function in the stomach and pancreas. Dr. Nasset heeded the suggestion of a colleague that there ought to be a hormone in the intestines, looked for one there. Function of enterocrinin in humans is unknown, but in dogs it seems to stimulate the production of digestive juices.

Artificial Womb. Dr. John Spangler Nicholas, Yale embryologist, removed nine-day rat embryos from the bodies of mother rats, succeeded in keeping the embryos alive for four more days of the 21-day period of pregnancy. During these four days most major rat organs develop into recognizable form. Dr. Nicholas used a "perfusion pump" similar to that invented by Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh and Dr. Alexis Carrel, which serves to irrigate pieces of tissue with a circulating stream of blood.

Radioactive Water. The cyclotron is a sort of electrical pinwheel for smashing atoms or making them artificially radioactive, invented by University of California's Ernst Orlando Lawrence who received the coveted Comstock prize at the Academy meeting (TIME, Nov. 1). With the University of Rochester's cyclotron, it was observed that water became radioactive after bombardment with protons. Dr. Lee A. DuBridge guessed that the radiation from water was due to the break-up of heavy oxygen atoms.

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