OCR Text |
Show ATOMIC HELP TO FIND OIL While industrialists were pointing point-ing out the prominent role of oil in the U. N.'s political problem, scientiss at the Atlantic City convention con-vention of the American Chemical Society this week reported the possibility that in the future vast new deposis of crude oil may be detected by atomic-age techniques. A theory that crude oil Is formed by the radioactive trans- t formation of familiar organic substances sub-stances has been developed by a group of Mass., Institute of Technology Tech-nology scientists. They told the convention how their investigations investiga-tions are developing in the labo-atory labo-atory the radioactive processes that may explain how nature, over a period of ten million years, accomplishes ac-complishes the conversion of protein, pro-tein, fats and other complex materials ma-terials into oil. The research has shown that basic hydrocarbons found in oil can be produced by the effect of radioactivity in organic compounds com-pounds by bombardment or radiation radia-tion under laboratory conditions. Whether similar conversions may take place in the organic material present in oil fields to form appreciable ap-preciable quantities of petroleum is not yet known. Further study is being made as to the importance impor-tance of radioactivity in the formation for-mation of crude oil, and of methods meth-ods which may be used in detecting detect-ing new oil deposits. |