Chemists in Convention

What U.S. chemists mainly talked about, at their annual convention in Pittsburgh last week, was food, oil and rubber. But the chemists also got around to some sex talk about roosters.

Roosters. A new way to produce fatter, tastier cockerels, to make even tough old roosters succulent, had been discovered by Biochemist Frederick W. Lorenz of the University of California. His method: the injection of a synthetic sex hormone. Lorenz had begun by wondering why a hen grows fat when it starts laying eggs. He proved it was because the female sex hormone, estrogen, increases the amount of fat in the blood. Lorenz then hit on the idea of giving estrogen (available in a cheap, synthetic form called diethylstilbestrol) to fatten up male fowl.

Feeding them the hormone did not work (they eliminated it too fast). So Lorenz injected pellets of the substance under their skin, let them absorb it slowly. The results were startling. In two to six weeks the roosters' red combs paled and shrank; they grew female feathers and a layer of fat; their pubic bones spread; they lolled around like capons. After roasting, they tasted much better than ordinary cockerels. When Lorenz treated stringy, dark-fleshed old roosters, their meat also became light and tender. Lorenz has tried his discovery only on chickens and turkeys, but biochemists do not expect it to stop there; some even envision the production of sweet-tempered bulls like the fictional Ferdinand.

Offering his discovery to U.S. poultry-men, Lorenz had a word of warning: if the consumer should swallow an unconsumed hormone pellet with his chicken, it might make him sick. To avoid this, he suggested that the pellets be implanted in a part not usually eaten, i.e., the neck.

Other convention highlights:

Mosquitoes. A new mosquito repeller, more effective and four to six times as lasting as citronella, was announced by a group of chemists from hard-bitten New Jersey. A military secret known only as "Formula No. 612," it is an inexpensive, colorless liquid without unpleasant odor.

Waves. The widening use of high-intensity sound waves (some high-sounding, some inaudible) was suggested by the University of Minnesota's Professor Karl Sollner. These waves, which can disperse or collect gaseous, liquid or solid particles, are now used to clear the air of fog and smoke, kill or disrupt germs, impregnate aluminum with microscopic lead particles, create fine-grained photographic emulsions.

Viruses. A stride toward identifying the viruses responsible for many ills, from the common cold to infantile paralysis, was reported by the Rockefeller Institute's Dr. Max A. Lauffer. His colleague Dr. Wendell M. Stanley had advanced the theory that one virus (tobacco mosaic) was a giant protein molecule which, contrary to the usual behavior of molecules, can reproduce itself within living cells. To prove this theory, Dr. Lauffer used a high-speed whirling machine that works like a cream separator. He whirled a solution of tobacco mosaic protein, to separate the protein molecules from the rest of the solution (and presumably from the virus, if that was an independent substance).

When only a quarter of the protein was left, he tested it for virus infectivity, found that it had almost exactly a quarter of the toxic strength of the original solution--strong evidence, he believes, that the virus and protein molecules are one & the same.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.