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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1962-10-25, Page 7Scientists Going Back. To Nature Scientists are recognizing more and more that nature is the best Weide to mechanical perfection. And so, in 1960, a new sc,ienee was born -,°-Bionics. This is the art of applying the knowledge o£ how living systems and methods work to help solve the complex ettgineering prob- lems of today. Biologists and engineers are being encouraged to work hand In glove. In only two years, progress has been fantastic .. . For instance, discovery of how the eye of a certain beetle reacts to changing lights has led to the drawing up of a ground -speed indicator for aircraft, which op- erates on just two of the hun- dreds of facets composing ane beetle's eye! Then, from the stalk -like eye of the horse-shoe crab, an elec- tronic model has been construct- ed in the United States which sharpens contrasts and is likely tobe applied to target recogni- tion. You see, the five senses pro- vided by nature are really biol- ogical transclucers-'or transistors -although, of course, infinitely more sensitive than anything en- gineers have yet been able to make. Valuable work on optical illu- sions is today being done by Donald McKay at University College, North Staffordshire; while N. S. Sutherland of Oxford University and J, Z, Young and others at University College, London, are primarily concerned at the moment with the vision of the octopus, In America a synthetic retina bas just been designed which duplicates the known functions of a frog's eye, the structure of which is muoh simpler than man's. When completed it will measure thirty-five inches across. But it is the smallness and compactness of the examples from life which is exciting most interest. One species of sand Ilea can direct itself to the sea on the basis of the moon's posl- tion--performing by instinct al- most unbelievably difficult navi- gational computations. Even the tiniest man-made guidance device weighs about titre pounds. Smeller and smaller still is the demand, aid it is here that scien- tists can learn most from living creatures, Bats detect obstacles, as well as their prey, while flitting 'through the air at tremendous speeds in the dark, They do not use eyesight, just sound waves - quite inaudible to humans - emanating from the larynx in some species, and from the nos- trils in others. They have, in effect, their own built-in radar, A bat which has been blinded will fly as well as ever. If its astonishing little echo -locating power could be reproduced and manufactured, . the handicap of human blindness would be con- siderably reduced! It has also been established that certain fish are extremely sensitive to smells, as well as to -the slightest hint of electricity in the water, even many miles .away. But how? The rattlesnake has an infra- red sensing organ in the pit be- tween nostril and eye which re- sponds to a change of tempera- ture as tiny as 0.001 degree cen- tigrade. Ten years ago, engineers would have considered such phenomena interesting, but none of their business. Now the ever-growing complexity of modern machines has driven them to seek more and more advice from nature - and to imitate her ways, For instance, the . B17 aero- plane of 1940 had only 2,000 electronic parts. Twenty years later, the 1358 has 07,000: 'i'tedue- tion In size has thus become of paramount importance. And here economical nature knee's all the answers. In other words, machines are tending more and mare to res semble living systems. The de- velopment of high-speed, high- capacity eleatlahiic computers or "mechanical brains" --- means providing something almost as lntrieate as a network of living nerve cells: Of course, the marvellous eon- piexity of.. the human brain is quite beyond compare, but scien- tists have been able to learn mueh from just a few of its my- riad functions, writes Basil Bail- ey in "Tit -Bits". One by-product is the con- struction of the extraordinary "maze -runner." This mechanism learns, much as a rodent will, how to find its way out of a maze of passages by a system of "rewards and punishments." Although it canont feel pain in the physical sense, it will react violently to electric shocks and take good care not to make the same mistake twice! ISSUE 42 - 1962 The nervous system of animals is, indeed, actually a kind of digital computer . , . with elec- trtoal impluses, or nerve fibres, reacting to information received through the senses. Thus, research into how vari- ous creatures collect, construe and store information is impor- tant in the building of "thinking machines," Scientists, for example, are to- day studying the transducers in the car, which act as receivers and also appear to select what shall be relayed to the brain, Then, at the 11,5, Office of Naval Research, another group of learned men are trying to un- derstand how and why some birds and animals migrate over huge distances with astonishing accuracy. The answer, they believe, will lead to the construction of better and much smaller mechanical navigation and detection devices. But it is in the field of medical electronics that the most start- ling results may well be ob- tained, The body accomplishes many of its functions through the joint inter -action of millions of cellu- lar units. Associated with these,. there invariably exists an elec- trical signal, or something extra- ordinarily like it, which can be converted into electricity by means of transducers. Electronic prates, tiny enough to be injected in a vein or swal- lowed as an indigestible pill, have been used to stimulate the heart. These minute broadcast- ing stations will also transmit information, including tempera- ture and pressures to receivers outside the body. It is hoped that one day self - powered transducers may be swallowed or injected to replace, control or supplement the action of physical organs which have become defective. Even now, they could have a battery life of more than five years. After all, artificial kidneys, lungs, hearts and hearing have already been employed for vary- ing periods of time to help a patient's illness or trauma. Just imagine it . electronic amplifiers and recorders small enough to be carried around in the pocket and minute transmit- ters, which have been swallowed like a pill or injected, which would at once tell the owner when and where he or she was not "ticking over" properly! There is no doubt information from such probes would greatly help doctors, who dream of re- gional health storage centres, containing millions of health records, As Gordon Pask, of System Research Limited, Richmond, Surrey, pointed out recently: "Biopics is a science which has arisen because men realized that a man-made environment must have a more biological structure." CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACIUOFS 1DeDOW ed 1. Trade m7s, rk rnnidty O. soon❑ to 2. Bon god harmony 2. Slam, coin 31. Chin whistlers 4. B. birth 12. Venerate 0, Ft tin O.11 nes Id Artificial 7. Pt anent language as. lied canopy 17. Clod (Iiebrow) 10, Norse county 20. Rise high 22. Nxlst 20.04 moans of 24, Blunders 21 Astelnrient salt 97 Pubn:lticn 29 Ascend at. Lew lst 51. Waste allowance 82. Revere 94.itncourage 87 sent lee 98. vlel crated 29. utmost hYperhole 40. Morning tab.) 41, Flit 43. Corded fabric 44, Paint lily 45. Decorations 48. Brother of Odin 19. Church festival 2. Storrs 4. ntiddays 5. Devoured 9. Four (nom. 31. Sloping bank cern.) of earth 9, Myself 22. Diminish I 22. Man's name 10. Place of utter 54. Hurried darkness 8O. Football (Gr. myth.) team 11. Pulpy fruit 88. Backs of 18. Smyrna figs necks 19. Lacerated. 88. Declares 17. Sen demigod 42. Sign 21, Seurrer 4d, Pasture 24. Rutland 47. Geld a 20. Rubbish session 29. Phu ling innlight 51. Close fora river 28. Compass point, Answer elseWhere on this page FROM PIONEER DAYS -- Pirogue cut from a walnut log, 21 feet long, was found in a bayou in Knox County, Ind, The dugout is believed to have been made by either an Indian or a pioneer French trapper. Local sportsmen say the pirogue wos used in the area more than 100 years ago. Machines have trade their way into the corn, cotton, pea, and beet harvests with great success, displacing thousands of seasonal workers, But there are limits to what machines can do for other crops, This year's harvest of fruits and vegetables indicates that the trend toward mechanization, while clearly evident, is by no means a rush, There appears, in fact, a slowing up of the move- ment toward automation, and this is fortunate for the seasonal work force. These are conclusions drawn from reports gathered by the United States Department of Labor and from individual inter- views * o „ `One difficulty in the path to automation lies In the slowness of the process of adapting plants to the picking machines, accord- ing to Richard B. Calhoun, chief of farm placement, Illinois Em- ployment Service, Take toma- toes, They have a habit of grow- ing close to the ground, and it is hard for machines to reach them. „ „ Said Mr. Calhoun: "There is need to breed plants that will grow tomatoes off the ground at a paint where the machines can reach therm." He noted another horticultural problem: Tomatoes and cucutn- bers don't ripen all at once on the vines but require a number of successive pickings. The me- chanical pickers injure the vines and diminish or destroy later pickings. The need, therefore, is for stronger, machine -resistant vines that can produce over a less -extended period, No doubt they will appear eventually. farms that find machine picking most profitable, An example is the Green Giant Company, which grows much of the produce it processes. The company farms nearly 170,000 acres from coast to coast in units 01 1,500 acres or more and has found it profitable to use machines for planting, cultivating, and harvesting corn and peas. Beans, too, are well on the way to 100 per cent mechanization, This summer Green Giant experi- mented with four -row harvesters for beans. This company not only makes maximum use of ma- chinery but raises its own va- rieties of vegetables suitable for mechanical harvesting, Its suc- cess with the robots indicates a trend involving great social changes, .,, „ „ Sen, Clinton P. Anderson (D) of New Mexico, former Secretary of Agriculture, does not usually speak out on farm legislation since, as he says, he finds him- self in opposition to his Dem- ocratic colleagues. This makes what he had to say about the administration's new farm bill -now signed into law-- particularly aw-particularly significant, writes Josephine Ripley in the Chris- tian Science Monitor, He applied it to the farms which he owns in New Mexico, one of which he sold this year because he could not get a tenant for it unless he participated in the wheat program. since it is in the wheat area, * „ ,r Corn now is grown which has ears conveniently placed for the picking machine, and dwarf apple trees have been developed which lend themselves to har- vesting from a low stance, which just about halves the time it formerly took to pick the apples. Asparagus is a crop that ap- parently defies mechanization, but a personnel carrier, moving workers on a platform which keeps them out of the mud, is making the job less unpleasant, One result of the use of car- riers is an increase in the num- ber of pepole willing to pick asparagus, according to a Labor Department bulletin, Potato - harvesting machines have displaced a considerable number of migratory workers in recent months. Since one potato harvester may do the work of 20 to 30 men, it is easy to see that such machines greatly reduce the need for human labor. However, the machines are costly and are difficulty to use on hilly or rocky land. ' In Maine, a great potato state, not many farmers have bought machines as yet. But in North Dakota, with its flat fields, more than 95 per cent of the harvest is mechanized, according to the United States Department of Labor. Idaho finds some of its potato - growing areas 90 per eent me- chanized but others only 50 per cent This state reports that if present trends continue, within the next year or two only 20 per cent of the migrant warkers formerly employed will be need- ed. „ Th'ecost of mechanization is a major deterrent, Cherry - and apple -tree shakers were used successfully on a number of farms in Michigan last year and this, but as yet only a very small pe.contage of farmers say they can r" r' th use them. It is ti,s le secorporation un nom J. Ily He 11. l,arcli.2 Warren. 43.1) The Counselor Within John 14: 16, 17, 25, 26; 16: 4-15; Romans 8: 1-27 Memory Scripture: 1L e p en t, and be baptized every one of you in the mine of Jesus Christ for the remission of situs, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, Acts 2: 38 Throughout the church today there is an increasing interest in the beaching concerning the Holy Spirit, Church leaders are fully aware that the oh'urah is not nearly as effective as she Should be. Is it that the Holy Spirit is ,not dwelling in us as He wills bo do? A thug term convict re- centiy released from .peniteel- tiary, tells of the change which has taken place in his life aver the past eighteen months. Yet, he is riot interested in organized religion. ?eithaps one of the dif- ficulties is that the ohurah is too thoroughly organized, but lacks the living presence of the Holy Spirit. A comment was made by ane who attended the last World Council of Churches at New Delhi, India, that not even the Holy Spirit could get into the Assembly without the assent of the main committee, The early church had very little formal organization, but it was very effective. It was the Holy Spirit that led Philip out into the desert to witness to the Ethiopian eunuch and that led Peter to the house of Cornelius to present the message to the Gentiles, While the Church was ministering to the Lord and fast- ing at Antioch, the Holy Ghost said, "Separate me Baxnaabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." Thus Paul started forth on the first of his great missionary tours, Again, it was the Spirit who directed him to enter Europe with the Gospel. Now, when the church has a pproblem - and it has plenty o them - It refers the problem to a committee, In the early church, 'when they hada problem, they James went to prayer. had been put to death by King Herod, and Peter was impris- oned, "prayer was made without ceasing by the church unto Gad for him." God sent an angel and released Peter. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. He makes real to us the benefits available through the death and resurrec- tion of Jesus Christ. He con- victs us of sin, righteousness and judgment, When we believe, He bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Through the Holy Spirit we are enabled to mortify the deeds of the body and live holy unto God. Does the Holy Spirit live in us? Ile could net conscientiously participate in the program, he told the Senate, because "it would have paid me $44 an acre for the full amount I took out of production and $53 an acre above that to let lard lie idle, when only a few years ago the land was selling for less than that per acre." That was under the old pro- gram. 1'Ie said if he owned that farm now and operated it under the program just adopted, "I would be given $1 a bushel for 46 bushels. I would start with $46 an acre. "Since there are 250 acres, and one-fifth of the acreage would be taken out of production, to lie idle, I would get $2,300 for that operation. „ „ 5 "With respect to the support price of 18 cents a bushel, to be paid to me on the remainder, I would get $8.28 an acre, for 200 acres, or a total of $1,656. "In other words, I would get I was launched, a61 earlier prece- dents were discarded. Where does one draw the line? Th • ease of the U-2 illustrated the dubious theory that ",if you can shoot it down, it has n•:; right to be there." But it did nothing to solve the problem el' manned; er unmanned, satellites whirling through the heavens. And fixing the limits of space is just one of the host of legal teasers that has accompanied mans leap into the celestial world. For example, who owns space? Are celestial bodies, presuming they are un- inhabited, subject to colonization by earthly powers? Can Russia or America legally plant a flag on the moon? Iiow does one claim compensation for damage from satellites that may fall from the sky? Unfortunately, all attempts by the U.N. Outer Space Committee (photo) to codify a binding, basic outline have become enmeshed in the cold war. Thus, U.S. reconnaissance sa- tellites have holly aroused the Soviets, who denounce them as acts of aggression and espionage. Proposals to fixe the uppermost limits al national sovereignty have ranged from 25 miles to in- finity. One suggestion was that the line should be drawn at the lowest altitude at which an arti- ficial unpowered satellite can be put into orbit around the earth - somewhere between 70 and 100 miles. There is growing disturbance at the snail's -pace advance to- ward formulating space taw. There is fear that unless the great powers agree on a set al ground rules to govern space ex• pioralion, and remove it from earthly squabbltngs, man's ven- ture into the heavens will have a melancholy ending. New Legal Problem -How High The Sky? Back in Roman times a citizen whose neighbor built an over- hang that extended over his backyard fence could quote the law: "Oaths est solum, eius est useque ad coelom , ," (Who owns the land, owns it up to the sky.) By and large, it is a law that has served civilization well right up to modern times. Even the advent of the air age did not materially affect it, since the Paris Convention of 1919 explic- itly stated that "every power has complete and exclusive sover- eignty aver the airspace above its territory." But when Sputnik nearly $4,000 for taking 50 acres out of cultivation. That is about $80 an acre for wheatland, which was being bought very freely for less than that amount per acre only a short time ago.. . Oil Shortage Before Long? Unless more oil is found in Canada, domestic and foreign markets by 1970 will be taking just about all the oil Canada can produce, With oil production at an all- time high this year, the industry, is now producing at 53 per cent of its potential, At the present rate of discovery, it will be pro- ducing 80 per cent of its poten- tial ly 1970, Forecast demaau4 for Canadian -produced oil eight years hence is one million bar- rels a day while the forecast producibility is only 1,260,000 barrels a day. Because it usually takes six to 10 years before exploration work results in new oil production, it isn't a moment too soon to begin building up reserves for 1970, the Review warns. To do this, the oil industry must boost its present annual exploration budget from the $250 million now being spent to $300 million by 1070, accord- ing to- the Imperial Oil Review. The geologists, geophysicists, the wildcat and development drillers are busy. During the last century, the industry has drilled more than 60,000 holes with half of them producing oil. Today there are 17,960 Canadian oil wills and 5,994 natural gas wells capable of production. By 1970, the arti- cle says. there will be many more. Many a woman could acid yams to her life simply by telling the truth. Ut„ntrdov,1 la N1'rSrl,l 5 b,0. it 3 6 S ZS la A 0I 113 3 M 01.x- r. ?J 3 .t. 31.31,1„.a 0 !I p(gy e ARIZONA UNDER WATER - Flood waters draw volt, destructive patterns in the Arizona landscape at N1.rriccpa Much of the community was evacuated as the floods surged toward the Gila River.