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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1954-07-22, Page 3IV dd 3 a t'. 14, SNE SZE Do you find it hard to imagine space going on in all directions, never ending? But it is only equally hard to imagine a finite, limited universe? (We use the word "universe" here to mean all space and everything in it -the sum total of galaxes.) Astronomers admit , frankly that they do not know how far space extends. It is fascinating to speculate about what the uni- verse as a whole maye be like, but we must remember that we live in a very narrow and iso- lated corner of the great cosmos. Much of our view is obscured by the cosmic dust of one kind or another, and our theories are at best nothing more than guesses. Probably some of them are very wild guesses. 1.1 space is infinite, it would seem reasonable to believe that stars are scattered through it in all directions. Our biggest tele- scopes as yet show no evidence that thereis any' dropping off of stars numerically, even billions • of trillions of miles away, One of the most interesting conceptions of the great physicist Albert Einstein is that space is curved. This is hard for the human mind, particularly the un- tutored and unlnathematical mind, to comprehend. The idea is part of Einstein's famous theory of relativity and can not be real• ly understood without extensive mathematical training; but it will perhaps be possible for us in passing to catch a fleeting glimpse of what curved space might mean. If the universe is finite, in other words, does not extend on forever, then space may very possibly be of such a nature that it curves sound on itself like an enormous sphere. In this case the universe could be said to be finite, but unbounded. If space actually is so curved, then it would be reasonable to assume that rays of light from a star, which start on their way today through the universe, will be curved and bent to fit the form of the universe. In other words, we might conceivably be able to observe with our telescopes the "ghost images" of objects -stars or nebulae or galaxies -which are actually on the opposite side of the universe and thus out of our 'direct line of vision. In seeing these ghost images we should be doing the same thing as seeing the image of the back of our own heads. You might ask - well, why are we not seeing such ghost images now? Possibly we may be doing so, in some cases. Or possibly the universe is not yet old enough to have given light time to travel halfway around it. One of the most interesting conceptions of the universe, and one which at first glance seems as fantastic as Alice in Wonder- land, is that of the expanding universe. The great English astronomer Sir Arthur Edding- ton was one of the chief propon- ents of this idea, He presented Mice n ice Cold storage won't stop mice from taking their share of the world's food. Scientists at the University of Glasgow kept two families of white mice in a room at six degrees below freezing. By the end of the experiment the third generation had ap- peared. Similar families of white mice kept at eighteen and thirty-four degrees above freezing produced their fourth generation in the same period of time. So the only effect of cold storage conditions is that there may be fewer mice about, but otherwise they'll do quite nicely, thank you. An interesting observation was that the nests in, the cold room, where the animals moved more slowly, were better constructed than the nests in the warmer rooms. Which goes to show that it's worth taking time over things. it in his book The Expanding Universe. Doctor Edwin P. Hubble of Mt. Wilson Observa- tory discovered that almost all of the galaxies, or island uni- verses, or spiral nebulae (by whatever name you may wish to call them) appeared to be re- ceding, or traveling rapidly away from us. It was discovered, further- more, that the farther away the galaxy, the more rapid its mo- tion. For every additional mil- lion light-years of distance from the earth, there was an increase in speed of about a hundred miles per second. At first this seemed so fantastic that hardly anyone could believe that the facts had been interpreted correctly Sir Arthur Eddington asked us to imagine a round toy balloon that was being more and more inflated. Each point on the sur- face of the balloon would be moving farther away from every other . point. Sir Arthur sug- gested that some such explana• tion might account for the gen- eral recession of the galaxies- En such an expansion those bodies which are farthest away from the centre would move most rapidly In order to sees how this would work, it might be better to think, not of a balloon, but of a solid. • soft rubber ball which by some means is being blown up. The points on the outside of the ball will be moving more rapidly than those near the middle of the ball. -From "The Book of Knowledge." Wh-.t" ► I rii:1.ir- "et 'care Have you, like most people, a pet fear? Scientists and Doctors have been discussing the quite or- dinary things that make some. of us shudder. One of them quoted the amaz- ing case of a young man who hada horror of glass and shud- dered whenever he encountered it. A specialist discovered that this fear had possessed him since he was -a boy of six He had stared one day into the curved plate glass window of a shop and had seen reflected in it the houses opposita look- ing as if they were about to fall and crush him. Another man was known to faint whenever he entered a room where many flowers were displayed: The perfume always overcame him. An eclipse of the moon scared Lord Bacon so much that he col- lapsed. Lord Roberts, the great soldier, feared cats and hated one to cross his path. And an Italian named Nivanor was so sensitive to the sound of a flute that he swooned if one was played in his presence. Satin, silk and peaches have been known to inspire unreason- ing terror in some people In- sects, especially spiders, are a very common aversion. A fam- ous author once declared that, provided he had a sword handy, he would rather meet a lion than feel a spider crawling upon him in the dark. After a woman had been found dead in the lonely island of Iona, in the Hebrides, in 1929, it was revealed that she had conceived a violent dread of an Egyptian statuette which her fa- ther had given her when they were both in Egypt. She declared that ehe statuette was evil and would only bring her misfortune, but for some reason could not bring herself to part with it•. A man in Houston, arrested after being seen stuffing a small boy into the trunk of his car, confessed that he was hiding the child to save the price of one admission at a drive-in movie. CROSSWO PUZZLE, ,1CR08'4 1. Meadow 4. Stone 9. Attempt 12. Cereal seed 18. Shaving; Implement 14. Bitter herb 19. 38state 17. Roman garment 18. F'asien 19. Bar legally 21, Father 23. Soft -mineral 25. Due 28, Fish sauce 30, Secondhand 82. The heart 33. Collect 35. R.npty 37, Devoured '88.Cancel 49, Olive genus 41, Audacity 43, Russian sea 45, Street (ab.) 46. Roman date 48, Nxtinct, bird 60, Lament 62. Peevish 66. SOrson kill 57, f athersee 58, Color 59, Firmament 00. Finished 61. tinnovnl k Lout off f. Attention 8. surinou t4.i e combat 5. Pikelike fish 6. Mexican Indians 7, Playthings 8. Comparati% e ending 12 15 9, Of the tropics 10, Mat 11. Affirmative Vote 16. Key 17. Pull after 20. FIindustan native 21. Heathen 22. winged 24. Tempt 28. Memoranda 27. Famous 29.verinsting duration 5 6 7 6 31, At any tiros 34. Paradise 86, Hue 39. 17ndured 42. Volume (ab.) 49. Improve 47. Gain by labor 49. Pain 59. Existed 51, N•oah4s boat 53. Golf mound 54. Of us 55, Wooden ptn 57, 17th Hebrew letter 11 16 23 20 33 29 4z fA5 C'n 2,4•1SS • 50 Answe Ii isewhere on Th Paste Takelelieving heir t `+'y Back to Irealth Ever see a hospital that children ;actually cry togo to, and once there, refuse to .leave? Such a place actually exists in Meadeville, thanks to the founder, Owen K. Murphy, who became more and more concerned about the lack of facilities for handicapped children of his community. In- stead of o bleak hospital atmosphere, the doors of Niagara Research Foundation, open to a veri- table fairyland. The rooms are gaily decorated and filled with toys to gladden the youngsters. All this is a treat, yet In each toy there is a.treatment, for each Is a therapeutic instrument which exercises the muscles of the spcistic, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy victims who come here fo rtreatment. Horse with special equipment Dr. E: H. Connor, director of the Center, shows this small boy helps speed this girl's recovery. how to pilot the ferry; boat. Piloting his way to health, this little patient strengthens his back and leg muscles with therapeutic equipment on plane. N SAY C LESS Growing Through Prayer Philippians 4:6-7; Hebrews 4:14-16 Memory Selection: Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceas- ing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thess. 5:16-18. Prayer is the most common means of grace. Anyone can pray anywhere, anytime. The newly converted heathen may not be able to read the scrip- ture but he can pray. The blind or ill may not read but he can pray. A fighter pilot when asked if he ever prayed when on his perilous expeditions over enemy territory, said, "Of course we did." Most people pray when in trouble. .But the Christian cul- tivates the habit of prayer. James Montgomery, who gave to the church themost outstanding hymn on prayer, wrote, "Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, The Christian's native air, His watchword at the gates of death; Re enters heaven with prayer." Jesus Christ set us a great example in his prayer life. Once when he ceased praying one disciple asked him, "Lord, teach us to pray," He taught them the Lord's Prayer. What a beauti- ful spirit breathes in that prayer! Jesus taught the lesson of con- tinuing in prayer by an illustra- tion. Let us not forget what He said. of the 'Man disturbed at midnight. "Though he will not rise and give hila, l ecause he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise arid give him as many as he needeth." The lesson closes with a vital recipe for happiness, Don't worry. Pray about everything. Be thankful. The result is, "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus," We learn to pray by praying. It is not enough to know ...the theory of prayer. We must practise prayer. He was applying for county relief and the young lady official was tilling out the customary form. "Dos you owe any back house rent?" she asked, "We ain't had no backhouse for years," he replied with great dignity, "We gni modern plumb- ing." Foiled Again - As any wolf can plainly see, Audrey Magee, is in good form. However, as a word of warning, Audrey is also in excellent form with a dueling foil. She keeps in practice through the recreational pro- gram at the aircraft plant where she works. Roving "To bst rife" They still don't know what to do with that tombstone. The mat- ter came up again in court re- cently. It all started when the gard- ener in the grounds of the ancient castle of Dunoon, just across the Firth of Clyde, found that what seemed to be a tombstone had sprung up overnight. It had a most peculiar inscription on it: "In memory of the Cowan Hotel Scandal . . the Touring Motor Coaches court ease .. what price the missing pavement? . . What next? Almost simultaneously it was reported that a slab of Caithness stone had been removed from a pavement in the town. The "tombstone" was firmly embedd- ed in concrete and the inscription was quite expertly done, It re- ferred to the taking over of an hotel as council offices and the court action which local . coach proprietors had taken because of the alleged loss of custom. Now the police have produced hit court their usual list of un- claimed articles which might be passed on to the finders. The "tombstone" was among them. But it could not be proved that it and the paving stone were one and the same. The Provost suggested that the stone should go to the town coun- cil because it had been left on their property, but the Clerk said: "The police should find the own- er.,, "But it wasn't .tost," replied the Provost. "And it has not be reported as stolen," said the public prose- cutor. Then it was suggested that the "tombstone" should be handed to the gardener who found it. The Provost expressed the hope that the gardener would in turn hand it to the town coun- cil who might offer it for sale as a curiosity and perhaps thus raise money for "the common good." But the gardener said it was no use to him. No one apparently made the suggestion that it might be put back in the pavement from which it would seem it had been taken. But perhaps that was because the paving stone has already been replaced by another. Underground Art mom Ancient Times On my first morning I visited the grotto of Le Grand Roo, much advertised. No painting; here, just natural formations. In the afterr.00n 1 went to Lea Combareiles, another tortuous tunnel, low and narrow, with shiny scabrous walls and drip- ping roof. No paintings here either, but scratchings in pro- fusion, outlines of animals grav- en on the walls, of mammoth, wolf, bear, ibex bison; and occa-. stenal fish: almost an inventory of the fauna of the land as it existed twenty thousand years ago. Why primitive man crawled into the inner recesses of drip- ping caves to scrape with infin- ite patience upon the walls is a matter for conjecture. Lascaux lies about fifteen miles by road from Les Eyzies. From the daylight by a few broad steps one descends into semi -darkness; the ground be- comes moist and water seeps from the rock overhead. There is a second door to " e thrown open, and then before one's eyes, around .the sides and over the roof of the great donned cave, there flows a fantastic panorama of bello ing bulls, charging Bi - sons, .reindeer and horses. The designs of succeeding genera- tions often overlap each other, and that without detriment or incongruity, indeed with but added emphasis. The drawing of the individual animals is superb; only men as conversant with their habits as a herdsman with those q his cattle could have depicted them with such incis- iveness of line, with such ap- preciation of form, with such vitality of movement. The col- ours used were the natural ones beneath their feet: red and yel- low earth, compact enough to be cut into pencils, black granulous soil for the deeper tones .. . From the main court of the grotto a passage on the right leads into a second hall. The walls of the passage are cov- ered with engravings of ibex and stags, the hall is as richly decorated in colour as the main court. In it there is a superb frieze of stags' heads, drawn as though the beasts were swim- ming through a torrent. From this hall in one direction there opens 'le cabinet des felins,' where cave -lions are the theme of the engraving; in another dir- ection a ladder, at a sudden change of level, drops one into "the well," a narrow and still but partly explored cavern. be a smaller gallery, opening al- most directly from the main court, stocky little ponies in var- ied anied colours dominate the scene. Those early men of Lascaux have left little that tells us of their daily lives -a few cut flints, a few hollowed stores that held colour for the artists or animal fat for "household" lighting. But they have left an awesome sanc- tuary, the most impressive pic- ture gallery that I have ever entered. -.From "Coming Down. The Seine," by Robert Gibbings. 3i S'1 9 3 d 1113 f) H O d30N3 N3333d't 3 .1.1 f 1 3 D V O 3 1 O kd{"'S3NO VW/163A 3130 VAMhI3I- ea3 s ro, 011131V .I,S3'is`N I tr/ O 2 O 1 A 1 d 3 d O 3 Pl id SCS 2t .lLllt'`31b19V Vd 3'1 Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking He's The Maio To Seat - Chris Chataway, right, is the man to beat if you're in a hurry. He is shown here pushing hard on the heels of John i.andl' as the Australian ran the world's fastest mile in 3158,0 at Turku, Finland. Chataway was also the hot -breath« of -pursuit when Roger Bannister first broke the four -minute mile in 3;59.4, at Oxford, last May.