Show Science Milestone M SI Utahn Helps Crack Atom Still Further By Rennie Taylor BERKELEY Cal Cat March 9 UP Ri Atomic science e got off to toan an ex exciting x x- x citing new start Tuesday W with th man-made man mesons mighty particles par pat tides s which h heretofore have hav t been n pl od produced ted on only by nature re I Iv young csc at the I University of California of California Dr C. C M. M Lattes 23 of Sa Sao Paulo Brazil and Dr E Eugene Gardner 35 35 a native of Logan Utah produced mesons on the he night of Feb 21 The announcement was held up until the achievement was verified beyond doubt doub I Productions of me mesons ons in the i laboratory for the first time was was' announced by Dr Ernest O. O Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence Law Law- rence famed atom and James B B. B Fisk research director of the atomic commission End of or Race The achievement ends a notable race among scientists in America Europe and perhaps elsewhere They agreed that artificial production production production tion of a meson would be the greatest thing in atomic research since sin the discovery of uranium fission in 1939 which led to the atom bomb The p pot potent 0 t e n t particles which eventually may point the way to atomic energy far greater than thai that produced by the atom bomb were produced in the university's ton 1000 cyclotron Dr Lawrence said laboratory mesons will give scientists their best tool for finding out just what particles there are arc in the nuclei of atoms However there will be beno beno no immediate practical application tion he added Despite the atom bomb little is known about the i insides of the atoms I Great Milestone l Dr Lawrence giving credit to his staff and to British researchers research research- ers termed the accomplishment one of the great milestones of at all time in fundamental atomic re re- re search S Mesons Masons arc are important because they are the most powerful par- par tides known to science and because because because be be- cause they have something to do with nuclei which researchers must learn about before they can solve any remaining atomic mysteries In Th jn nature t r th they y come com from froin the upp upper a air Presumably thy they py are are born when vh n th the nucleus of or a speed speed- speeding ing hydrogen atom hits an an atom of oxygen oxygen or r some other ther m matter in the air and explodes it Mesons are ae product products of these explosions Some have been rated as having energies of hundreds of billions of volts The energy produced in uranium atom explosions is only volts Relatively Feeble The cyclotron me mesons ons are feeble ones only ones only about four million volts Bigger atom hers will vill willbe be needed to to produce the more powerful ones Dr Lawrence said He added that the atomic energy commission was interested in plans for building still larger bust atom ing machines The cyclotron mesons show up as tiny black tracks on photographic photographic photographic photo photo- graphic plates They were made by bombarding carbon copper and other matter with the nuclei of helium atoms Heretofore scientists have observed observed observed ob ob- ob- ob served mesons in appreciable numbers numbers num bers only at high altitudes on mountains and from B 29 bombers I flying at feet or higher Laboratory production means that researchers can have them when and where they want them It should speed the big job of finding out exactly what particles make up a nucleus and what holds these particles so tightly together in an atom Dr Lawrence said mid Dr Gardner was graduated from Utah State Agricultural college in 1935 with bachelor of science degree degree degree de de- gree following which he taught physics at the Logan college for two years After doing graduate work at atthe atthe atthe the University of California at Berkeley he again taught at the theU theUS US USA U S A AC C. C in In 1940 h he returned to Berkeley to engage in the research work he has been doing there ever since Hewon the Ph D. D In 1943 1913 at the Berkeley university and thereafter became one of the leading figures in the institutions institution's pioneering in atomic fission Dr Gardner has been credited with making a great contribution to development of the original atomic bomb |