NEW YORK - Swarming microorganisms have a new scientific society to study them. It is the Society of Industrial Microbiologists, formed during the recent science meeting here.
The new group will pay special attention to microscopic life that destroys clothing, building materials and other substances. The organisms that, produce the antibiotics, such as penicillin, yeasts that yield alcohol in beer and liquor, and bacteria that produce useful chemicals are in the field of the society.
Dr. Charles Thom of Jeffersonville, N.Y., is the first president.
--- Science Service
STORRS, Conn., - There is new way to skin a newt. Very high frequency sound waves will make the little amphibian shed skin like an onion.
When left to its own schedule, a newt will molt about three times every two months. But when the "little creature is placed in a bottle, and subjected to ultrasonic vibrations for eight to 120 seconds, its shedding rate jumps to a maximum of 7.6 newt-suits per 30 days.
Unlike most of the known ways for skinning cats, the sound wave treatment is not fatal to newts if the energy level is kept within limits, Dr. Hugh Clark of the University of Connecticut has found.
Above 35 watts of energy the dose is fatal, but below this level newts can be sound-vibrated indefinitely without any other observed effect except a rapid sequence of new coats.
Some other conclusions noted by Dr. Clark are:
1. One ultrasonic jolt of 30 watts for one to two minutes keeps a newt on the rapid molt routine for at least 70 days.
2. The vibrations seem to act on the epidermis but no skin effects were noticed.
3. Although treatment seems to stimulate the thyroid gland directly, the pituitary gland shows no activity.
---Science Service
ITHACA, N.Y., - Cheese can now be made bacteria-free more easily.
This is done by pasteurizing the cheese with radio waves after the cheese has aged, three Cornell scientists have found. The presently used method is to pasteurize the milk from which the cheese is obtained.
It is much easier to rid 10 pounds of cheese of bacteria than to pasteurize the 100 pounds of milk from which it is made. The new method also makes possible the pasteurization of cheese after it has been wrapped, thus giving the consumer an uncontaminated product.
Since the elusive cheddar flavor has only come from aging cheese made from raw milk, the researchers had hoped to pasteurize old cheese after the raw milk flavor had developed. But the radio frequencies pasteurized only the very young raw milk cheese.
Cheese from the experiments was flavor-tested by competent cheese tasters. Although scores ranged widely, some of them were high, though not equal to an aged cheese made from raw milk.
In their system, Drs. F. V. Kosikowsky, B. L. Herrington, and A. C. Dahlberg placed the cheese between two plates or electrodes carrying a high frequency current. Friction is set up between the cheese molecules by alternating current, raising the temperature to 132 degrees Fahrenheit in a minute or two. Then the cheese is cooled by air. This pasteurizes the cheese, yet leaves enough enzymes and bacteria to develop flavor.
---Science Service
KINGSPORT, Tenn., - Better understanding of large molecules, such as those in rubber, is promised from a technique developed here.
Use of an alloy of aluminum and beryllium when preparing samples to be studied in the electron microscope is said to do the trick. The method, particularly suitable for large particles, was developed by Wilbur Kaye of the Tennessee Eastman Corporation here.
The alloy is used as the mounting surface for the sample that is being examined. Aluminum-beryll ium is superior to the collodion or other materials commonly used for support of the specimen, it is claimed. This is because by "alloying these two light metals it is possible to reduce greatly the granularity of structure," Mr. Kaye states. He says that the alloy has advantages because of its high strength, good electrical conductivity, insolubility in nearly all solvents and low density.
---Science Service
NEW HAVEN, Conn., - The lowly, spiny-tailed horseshoe crab has a delicate compass in his bulbous eyes. It is affected by polarized light.
This discovery was reported today by a Yale University zoologist, Dr. Talbot H. Waterman. It could give scientists a clue to the ability of high-flying insects to "see" their way to distant points by invisible polarization of light.
Dr. Waterman found that the compound eye of the horseshoe crab, which is similar to that of many insects, is affected by even a slight change in light polarization.
The zoologist hooked a loudspeaker to nerves leading from the crab's eye, among other instruments used in the intricate experiments. Then he listened to electrical impulses produced when a pinpoint of polarized light was shone into the eye.
How the crab uses his light compass is still not known, Dr. Waterman says in the forthcoming issue of the journal, Science.
---Science Service
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., - A technique of purifying germanium, the chemical from which lenses for spectacularly improved infrared equipment can be made, was announced here.
Lenses made from germanium transmit invisible heat radiation. The germanium lenses will do this even though they are an inch thick and do not allow ordinary light to pass.
Previous to the discovery of the infrared transmitting qualities of germanium, materials that are attacked by moisture have been used for optical work in the infrared region. During the last war important military applications were found for instruments using infrared radiation.
Dr. R. N. Hall of General Electric Research Laboratory found that germanium could be cooled with the direction of cooling controlled so that most of the impurities were concentrated at either end. Successive recrystallizatoins of the central sections remove impurities to the point where they are almost non-existant.
The extent of their removal is measured by the electrical conductivity, Dr. Hall told the American Physical Society meeting here.
WASHINGTON, - Recent dev elopments in feeds for America's farm animals have brought better diets to the barnyard than most people enjoy, the National Farm Chemurgic Council was told here today.
Progress in vitamin studies, particularly on vitamin B-12 in the socalled "animal protein factor," in wider use of amino acids and in knowledge of mineral requirements of farm animals was described by Dr. H. J. Prebluda, nutritional chemist for New York's U. S. Industrial Chemicals Corp. He predicted that the coming decade would be called "the fortified fifties."
"If as much interest could be aroused in feeding our population as in baby chicks and hogs," said Dr. Prebluda, "we would not only be the best fed nation on earth, but we wouldn't worry over crop surpluses."
Dr. Karl D. Butler, farm counselor from Ithaca, N.Y., said much the same thing in a second speech: " Livestock are fed better, from the standpoint of nutrition, than are people."
Science has boosted U.S. food output even though total acreage of vital crops has dropped in the past two decades, he said. Among developments to come, he predicted much greater use of yeast fermentation methods for producing protein foods from present crop and forest wastes.
---Science Service
NEW YORK, - Heredity i s a matter of chemistry, it appears from a discovery by Prof. Arthur W Pollister of Columbia University. here.
It is a chemical substance within the single cell which probably acts as the carrier of the hereditary units known as genes, Prof. Pollister finds.
This chemical is desoxypentose nucleic acid, or DNA for short. Using a complex machine for photometric chemical analysis, Prof. Pollister was able to determine the relative concentrations of DNA and other substances in the nucleus of a single cell. Within this structure of a few ten-thousandths of an inch, it can be shown that the amount of DNA is less than onetrillionth of an ounce.
The genes are located in the chromosomes of the cell nucleus. Nearly every cell of the body contains at least a double set of chromosomes and a double set of genes. This double set is present because at the fertilization of the egg, two sets of chromosomes and genes were brought together, one from each parent.
"By direct photometric analyses here at the University's laboratories," Dr. Pollister declared, " ithas been shown that DNA alone is strictly parallel in amount with the number of sets of chromosomes and genes."
"When analyzed, the very common double-chromosome nuclei of such cells as blood, liver, brain, kidney and glands, have all proved to have the same amount of DNA."
The single-chromosome nuclei of the sex cells, as expected, were found to have just one-half as much DNA. And, as often happens in science as well as other fields, the exceptions eventually helped to prove the rule: the "giant" four chromosome nuclei, and the still rarer "super-giant" eight-chromosome nuclei turned out to have four and eight times as much DNA as the single-chromosome sex cells.
The experiments served to clear up an international disagreement over DNA, Dr. Pollister stated. Previously, French biochemists, by comparing their analyses of DNA in masses of nuclei with the number of billions of nuclei estimated to be in the mass, found indications that the amount of DNA per nucleus might be constant, and about double that of the male sex cells. An American laboratory got results which did not agree with the French claims.
The direct measurements made on single cells in the Columbia laboratories clear up the dispute, Dr. Pollister asserted. They prove conclusively that the French tests are correct, and at the same time offer, in the analysis of the "giant" nuclei, an explanation of the disagreement that existed, he said.
The project also revealed that cells may grow to eight times their usual size without any increase in the amount of DNA; that cancer cells contain the same amount of DNA as normal cells; and that human blood-forming cells always contain exactly the same kind and amount of DNA whether the cells are from infants, youths, or adults, from persons with extreme anemia, or from those who are recovering from anemia as the result of treatment with Vitamin B-12.
---Science Service
Forty 15- to 18-year old high school seniors will gather here in the early days of March for the Institute of the Ninth Annual Science Talent Search, conducted by Science Clubs of America. Chosen for their potentialities as future research scientists, they will compete for $11,000 in Westinghouse Science Scholarships.
Among the participating finalists will be a 16-year old boy who discovered three unrecorded fish in New York waters, a 18-year old high school athlete who is now completing a three-dimensional table of the chemical elements and a 16- year old girl who has devised a relatively inexpensive chemical treatment for desert soils.
Economic status and occupation of the father seem to have very little to do with the making of a scientist. The fathers of the 40 winners are about evenly divided in professional and non-professional occupations. Mothers of the winners are in general occupied with their duties as homemaker but about 10 find time for full or parttime jobs in addition.
Approximately 57% of the winners' fathers and 35% of their mothers attended college.
Complete details of the annual Science Talent Search may be obtained by writing Science Clubs of America, 1719 N. St., N.W., Washington 6, D. C.
---Science Service