From the July 18, 1936, issue

MODEL INDICATES COSMIC RAY PATH ABOUT THE EARTH

To explain the magnificent spectacle of the aurora borealis it was long ago suggested that our planet continually receives a bombardment of high-speed electrically charged particles. At that time, however, no other evidence for such electrical showers existed.

When that subtle influence, called cosmic radiation, was discovered and found to consist, in part anyway, of fast-flying electrical particles, this explanation of the aurora was verified.

For some of these charged particles (those of lower energy) are concentrated by the Earth’s magnetism around the magnetic poles. Breaking up atoms as they stream through the polar atmosphere, the luminescence known as the Northern Lights is produced.

Possibly originating in stars, this cosmic rain of electricity gives us a new contact with the material universe and may hold many secrets pertaining to stellar constitution.

BLUE LIGHT CAUSES PLANTS TO BEND TOWARD EACH OTHER

Different colors of light not only produce different rates of growth in plants, but in some way cause neighboring seedling-tips to seek or shun each other, Dr. Enoch Karrer of the Smithsonian Institution has discovered.

Dr. Karrer grew large numbers of oat seedlings and exposed sets of them to the rainbow-band of light obtained by splitting up the white light of an electric arc. Seedlings exposed to blue light showed the expected reaction of bending toward the light. But they also showed an unexpected reaction: They also bent toward each other. Red light produced an opposite “social” effect: Red-illuminated oat seedling-tips bent away from each other.

Plants receiving orange light became greener than their neighbors, while those receiving only blue-green light developed the most marked yellowish color. Roots grew longest in the extreme blue and shortest in the orange-red.

DANGER OF BEING STRUCK BY LIGHTNING IS VERY SLIGHT

There is little chance of being killed by lightning in the United States, for only three persons in every million of the population have been struck down annually by electricity from the sky in the last 10 years.

New figures compiled by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company statisticians show that despite the low general mortality, there are areas, including New Mexico, Arizona, Georgia, and Mississippi, where each year about 10 persons in a million lose their lives from this cause.

Frequency of thunderstorms is an important factor, but outdoor workers are in much greater danger than city dwellers.