Show Fossils Intrigue Bright f t I h b One of 40 Talented Youth Honored With Trip H To Washington Many Ponder Careers f r As Atomic k i ij By BAUK BAUI AGE HAGE tk f f V- V Nerds Nett Analyst and Commentator Service 1616 Eye Street NW t WashIngton D D. D C. C C r He knew what a sphygmomanometer eter was used for that a decIgram equals grains and that s and anaphylaxis are dif dif- ferent BesIdes that he collects fos- fos j r sils enough to fill 1111 the farm kitchen at his home near Ellensburg Ellens- Ellens burg Wash That's why year old Jim Gibson got a free trip to Washington WashIngton Wash Wash- Ington D. D C. C where he ate buffalo steak at the zoo drank tea at the White House gave congress a critical critical cal over once and listened to Use Lise physics wizard talk on atomIc energy Jim Is one of 40 bright young hIgh school seniors selected as finalists in the fifth annual science talent search sponsored by Science Service ice of Washington with scholarships offered by Westinghouse Electric ir A company Sixteen thousand minded boys and girls from every section of the country took competitive examinations on suc such h things as sphygmomanometers an and d decigrams wrote essays on M My y Scientific Project were interviewed interviewed inter inter- viewed by leading scientists Three e I hundred of them won specIal recognition recognition were given honorable mention and 40 finalists x It tr t 1 is I James Gibson ing Jim Gibson came to Washington Washing Washing- ton D. D C. C to attend the Science Talent Tal Tal- Talent ent institute I met Jim Jun at the banquet which h wound up the hectic weekend o of f interviews and sightseeing tours and asked him how hed he'd happened hap hap- to start collecting fossIls In Instead instead in- in stead of stamps birds birds' eggs o or r matchbox covers Jim a ruddy rumpled serge suIted serge suited farm boy scoffed at stamps as dull Fossils Fos Fos- ails sils arent aren't One Fossil Years Old Why just this year he was no nos- nos s- s ing around some cliffs in his par part t of the state of WashIngton and h he e came upon an Interesting rock Th ThIs That at is it would look like a rock to yo you u and me Jim saw somethIng err embedded em- em bedded In It Maybe a bone He an and d his bis minded fossIl companion hacked hacke d dout out the rock and with considerable e effort lugged it into their car It weighed pounds At home Ji Jim m liberated what he had seen err embedded em- em bedded In the rock A small pie piece e of wood He took it to a fie professor friend of his and learn learned ed that what he had found was a year old fossil Jim was as excited as i if somebody had pres present present- ed d him with a new brand 1946 mod model el automobile The serious brown eyed brown eyed young young- your g titer tosses decades and centuries centuri es around with great ease Over the mushroom soup he dug around in n his crowded pockets and product produced d an odd looking object f See this he asked Um I said Another piece of rock Its a sharks shark's tooth Jim e ex- ex x Its eight million yea years rs old Dr Foshag of 01 the Smithsonian Smithson- Smithson n ian Institution gave it to me I hurriedly rolled the conver conversational conversa- conversa sa ball back to 1946 What does your family think of your fossils I wanted to know c Wen Well it turns out that Jim and his father a dairy farmer b bat ch it Mr GIbson has no objections to fossils under the bed so long as the they y dont don't interfere with Jims Jim's cooking Y Yes es Jim does docs most of the cooking but hes he's deprecatory on this score saying saIng hIs culinary exploits depend de de- pend largely on a C can Likes Collector Of Brains Girls Well to appeal to Jim they'd have to be DS as smart as Lis Lise c s The little haired gray feminine feint femi- nine scIentist whose research led directly di- di di re ally to the development of th the e atomic bomb mp essed him mos most t of anything or anybody he saw in n Washington with the exception ot o othe f the cyclotron at the bureau of stand stand- ards However there was one girl gir 1 he met at the Science Talent institute tote tute who he admitted was interesting interest ing She collected brains He knows all about running a farm and he keeps bees becs as part o ohis ot othis s his 4 H 4 H tub club work but Jim Gibson Gibso n isn't is nt keen about farming as a liv liv- Ing He prefers fossils And hes he's s casting a speculative eye eje on an the th e field of nuclear physics as are ar e well over halt half of the scientific scientific- minded youngsters who came t to o WashIngton this year Incidentally at the same banquet Science Service Director Watson Watso n Davis mentioned a few firsts this thi s fifth group of young scIentists had ha I chalked up They ate broiled b biota buffalo iota falo steak without a qualm site after r viewing the live Uve variety at th the e Washington zoo they prepared a talk back report of their opinions opinion s on an the atomic energy and Kilgore Kilgo re bills to be submitted to congressional n al committees and and among th the ne e group was one Missourian said Mr Davis the the first MissourIan h hadded he e added who tuba had ever gone into th the e White House and had not come out o ut with a federal appointment There is a strange paradox In congress con con- gross gress and it may maj cost the Democrats Demo Demo- c rats the pro tern presidency of the senate Its It's the exact reverse of the unholy alliance of tod toddy the the y-the coalition between the southern Democrats and the northern and this is the way some of the gazers crystal on Capitol Hill expound expound ex- ex pound it There have been no real issues before before be- be fore the country over which the voters could tear their hearts asun- asun d der er But there have been some bitter bitter bit bit- ter ones within congress and among the Democrats in the senate especially especially espe- espe which have caused incendiary cry ary intramural political friction Senator McKellar Democrat o of Tennessee has been In the eyes of some of hIs more progressIve colleagues colleagues col- col leagues a brake on the wheels of what they consider theIr progress I Senator McKellar has sturdily and I steadily bucked administration legislation not merely the Fair Employment Practices bill but other measures which the liberal liberal lib eral clement on both sides of the aisle have supported Nobody denies that after the next election the Republicans Republicans Re- Re publicans are going to get some of those 17 seats in northern and western west west- ern constituencies away from their Democratic opponents They may get enough of them so the parties will be at least more evenly balanced balanced bal bal- even in the opinion of the themore more conservative prognosticators That is half of the proposition The Theother other hall half Is the growing wrath of some of the liberals on the Democratic Demo Demo- erotic cratic side who are very sore at McKellar for deserting the party line It is not out of the picture that enough of these liber liberals will be willing will will- lag ing to kick over the traces and vote for far a Republican president tern pro or at least vote against McKellar and thus produce the strange but possible phenomenon of a representative represent represent- ot of the minority party ing ing- ing over the senate This is not a prediction but It ItIs itIs Is the presentation of a paradoxical cal possibility granted the trend of the times becomes the course of to to- morrow The FCC must decide whether the new telephone rt recorder corder destroys the telephones telephone's privacy It might keep people from wasting telephone time and think of all the things you wouldn't say U it you knew they were going to be on the record For one thing it might make people more sympathetic toward radio common common- rotors |