HEN a scientist speaks of a weapon that can

Wi thillions, you read his words in front-page But if a scientist speaks of turning

headlines.

research away from mass murder,

feed the hungry, you are lucky the back page: The two atomic

killed close to 100,000 people times, But how many know that even before those bombs were dropped, scientists used the atom to save thousands of lives.

Listen to Doctors John .Gib- gon and Robley Evans, of Mas- sachusetts Institute of Technol- ogy. “Through medical advances alone,” they say, “atomic en- ergy has already saved more lives than were snuffed out at Hiroshima and Nagaski.” Speak- ing to fellow-scientists, they tell

a fascinating Story of how cér- tain atoms were used to help

more than 100,000: American sol- ‘ diers badly wounded in the Pa- cifio war. ;

Iron, not uranium, was the kind of atom used. Iron is & vital element in our red blood cells, When a wounded man is given a transfusion of “whole blood,” if he is to be helped the red cells must be alive and healthy. But when blood is flown for thousands of miles, or stored for weeks, sometimes it spoils. Regular tests were no help in telling doctors whether Or not the blood was suitable for use. Then the atomic s¢i- entists stepped in with radio- active iron atoms.

“These special iron atoms were produced at Massachusetts In- stitute of Technology. They give’ out rays that can be watched with a simple device. So wherever these active irom atoms go, they can be traced Just as easily as you can fol- low a flashing light on a dark night,

Because of this, such atoms are called “tracers.” The scien- tists produced two different kinds of iron tracers, each Siving out a different ‘ray. It is Dot hard to understand how they Were used in the blood prob- lem, ‘

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1947

‘

“a

to save human life and to find his statement on bombs dropped on Japan . We've all read that, a dozen

People who donated their blood were given small doses of tracer- iron, Type One. Patients who

got the blood were- given Type Two . tracer iron. When ‘ the blood transfusion took place, ate comic scientists could . watch where the red blood cells were going, by moving & small instru- ment over the patient's body.

Watching the two kinds of “tracers,” they say which red blood cells belonged to the pa- tient, and which came from the transfused blood. In that way they could tell if the blood was actively circulating and helping

the patient, or not.

These tests showed how long blood could be safely stored before use, and led to better methods for preserving it. Facts thus obtained with atoms saved many thousands of lives in the

Pacific fighting.

IMILAR discoveries are now 5 saving civilian lives. For eX-

ample, people suffering from congestive heart-failure. In. this kind of heart disease the body tissues swell up with water fluid. Often there is great pain,

eventually death. —

This year Dr. George Burch, »

of Tulhane University, heard of tracer atoms of sodium. He got such atoms into the blood- stream of heart patients. Then he watched where the sodium atoms went in the body. He discovered that sodium tends to pour out, of the blood vessels into the tissues. This “escaped” sodium draws water with it. This is the cause of the wat-

ery swelling. Thus a new treatment was

developed. Heart cases of this kind are given special drugs

sodium from

that get tid of

ee a TL

the blood. Chemists are now working on new chemicals that may completely relieve the dan- gerous symptoms of congestive heart-failure. .

Using tracer-phosphorous, doc- tors are studying heart disease caused by blood clots in the large arteries. Authorities look

forward to revolutionary new methods for saving victims of

coronary thrombosis.

Scores of other studies are being made with tracer atoms.

These atoms give us “super eyes,” for with them we can

look into the very cells of the body. An exciting discovery was announced in August, when American biochemists succeeded in getting a deadly virus “tag- ged” with tracer-phosphorus. Soon: it will be possible to tag all viruses and disease bacteria. Then these killers can be traced in the human body, revealing exactly how they go about their deadly work, and showing’ sci- ence how viruses and bacteria can be most effectively destroy-

ed.

ACER atoms promise am* azing discoveries outside med-

icine. Until atomic research

gave us such atoms, there was ©

no way to follow the movement of soil food . in plants,

This year, in Canada, chem- ists fed tracer-phosphorous to wheat. In a few weeks they upset traditional ideas about the action of fertilizer, and their findings will be applied to in- erease crop yields and lower the cost of growing grain.

In Hawaii, other scientists fed

tracer-carbon to sugar-cane plants. They found that the

sugar produced in a single green leaf spreads throughout every

single part of the biggest .cane

plant within three days,

At the same time, these Hon- olulu chemists got tracer-sugar from their cane plants. This sugar is now being shipped to other laboratories, where it will be fed to people and animals. By watching the tracer-carbon atoms in this sugar, some basic problems of nutrition will be solved.

Traceriron is being used to study the wearing away of steel machines. Tracer-calcium is showing how to make better ce- ment, Tracer-sulfur reveals new facts about blast-furnaces,

E one depressing thing about.-this.. science’. news. -is

that military secrecy is badly hampering tracer-atom research

in America and Canada. Noth- ing can be done without approv- al from brass hats. New ma- terials are held back from sei- entists outside the atomic bomb laboratories, until the brass hats are sure that foreign scientists have such materials.

While the atom is glorified as a super weapon, the atom as a@ revolutionary new tool for peaceful research is being hush-

ed up. While the warmongers boast of North America’s su-

premacy in science, really they are doing everything possible to ~ hold back our scientists in the march of world research.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 10