| OCR Text |
Show IS A PUZZLE TO SCIENTISTS Theory of Atomic Disintegration of Radium Suggests Large Number of Unanswered Problems. "The greatest of our scientists know little about radium," remarked Prof. H. D. Blackie, of the University of California. "The theory of its atomic disintegration has suggested a large number of problems, some of which remain re-main unanswered. For instance, there is a mystery concerning the nature of the ultimate product or products of the atoms of the two primary elements f radium uranium and thorium. There, is some ground, but no positive proof that lead is the ultimate product of one, but as to thorium there is no solution. "Even the origin of radium is unknown. un-known. We know that It is an element ele-ment of intense activity and of great rapidity of disintegration, resembling its short-lived and active constituents. The period of the average life of radium is not accurately known, but It can not be more than a few thousand thou-sand years, some say 2,500 years. Thus in a few centuries all the radium in existence today will be gone. What there was of it in the world, say at the time of the building of the Pyramids, must have largely vanished by this lime through disintegration. " |
