Show I l. l r v Is the New Science Nonsense I I BY BY Y SIR WILLIAM BEACH THOMAS EDINBURGH The EDINBURGH The archpriest of the new science which professes professes to know just how matter is made up is Mr l Langmuir who has come over from the United States to Edinburgh to tell Us us all ill about the atom I Probably Probably rob rob- ably no speech at any British assocIation association association asso asso- meeting was ever listened to toby toby toby by a larger public with mouths of astonishment held more widely open than on the occasion of his recent discourse on the electron The charm of his personality and the candid pre precision pre pre- cislon of his oratory had something to do with this but the subject more Since Professor Rutherford one of the pioneer discoverers rediscovered the theat at atom m at Cambridge the world has been agog to know what it all means and what difference it will make Some of the older men especially the chemists are frankly sceptical They point out that these electrons supposed to be grouped round an infinitesimal center of electricity electricity elec elec- In exact patterns and in exactly ex ex- ex- ex calculable numbers are no bigger than one millionth of the millionth of ofa ofa ofa a centimeter hopelessly beyond the reach of the most powerful microscope microscope micro microscope micro micro- scope imaginable They say that the theory is half imagination buttressed buttressed buttressed but but- by successive and theories and that workers In science I had much better go to work on things I they can test and touch and I see Eee They ask what has happened to this age when men of science launch out cut like any mad poet into wild imaginations imaginations im Im- im- im I where no ordinary mortal may follow them I Imay S S C CIt It is perfectly true that the now now men of science have united their imaginations Imaginations imagInations Im im- im- im and probably gone into ex excesses ex- ex The great Swede M. M himself twitted Mr lr Langmuir with exceeding the speed limit and M. M J J. J J. J Thompson himself one of the discoverers seemed t td tO fear that the scientific revolutionaries were going too fast But when all aU is said the tact fact remains that Professor Protessor Rutherford Rutherford Rutherford Ruther Ruther- ford made as real a discovery as Mme Curie who set the ball rolling and that Mr Ir Langmuir's additions are helping workers to prophesy results with an accuracy that could not issue from a false theory The new theory explains satisfactorily very m many ny of the facts that have hav been discovered during the last ast years about the constitution and behaviour of ot the elements elements ele ments meats and enables more successful experiments to be made One may say that there 1 is 18 no longer any reas reasonable doubt that matter Is composed of lit littie lit Ut- tle tie whorls of electricity placed In various varIous various va va- va- va rious orders The elements are probably probably probably ably not chemically different in the theold theold theold old sense but may change and be changed b by a mere breaking down of th the electrical bits of which they are cO composed We first t knew this Inthe in hi the I IJ J case of radium We now know it of I other elements and suspect It of all The truth is being being- tested In every other physical laboratory in the world especially In America and England and antI a sort of clearing house Is about to be ai ranged arranged where the men of science ence nee of all the nations may get in touch as as to the latest work done on any element Never was such a hue on and cry in the world of science science I |