From the November 4, 1933, issue
WEIGHT LOSS FOUND TO BE CLUE TO PERSONALITY TYPE
A new link between the mind and the body has been described to psychologists in a report by Dr. W.R. Miles and his wife, Dr. Catharine C. Miles, of the Institute of Human Relations, Yale University.
The minute quantities of weight lost from your body when you are lying quietly at rest in a room of ordinary comfortable temperature have been found to serve as an index to the sort of person you are. Individuals who lose weight rapidly under such circumstances have, in general, some different personality traits from those who lose weight slowly.
The weight loss is due to water loss from the body in vapor on the breath, which can be easily seen in cold weather but which is present at all times, and in the invisible perspiration which is constantly keeping the skin of hands and feet soft and slightly moist. The average rate of such weight loss is about an ounce and a half an hour. But one section of the experimental group of subjects lost at a rate almost twice as high as the average for the others.
The ones losing weight slowly were taller and heavier than those in the high-rate group, but the fast losers were quicker in reaction-time tests. The slow losers were a little more intelligent than the fast losers but, in spite of that, the educational achievements of the fast losers were greater in terms of ability.
The following personality traits were found to be characteristic of the high-loss group. They let others do the entertaining, daydream, are self-conscious before a crowd, prefer writing to talking, tend to obey, and tend to regard themselves as slightly below average intellectually. On the other hand, the following traits were found in the low-loss group. They plan but do not daydream, get acquainted easily, seldom blush, rarely forget, tend to be cautious themselves, and consider reasons before obeying.
The cover picture shows Dr. Miles weighing a subject.
PARTICLES GET GREATEST ENERGY FROM WHIRLIGIG ATOMIC-GUN
Atom smashing has revealed new secrets about the hidden energy of the building blocks of matter that may some day serve as power in a super-machine age civilization.
These new advances were disclosed by Dr. Ernest O. Lawrence, an American physicist, at the session of the Solvay International Institute of Physics being held in Brussels. Dr. Lawrence, with Drs. M. Stanley Livingston and Malcolm C. Henderson, his colleagues at the University of California, has also communicated his research results to the American journal, The Physical Review, to appear in a forthcoming issue.
The whirligig atom-gun invented by these modern alchemists has fired the most energetic atomic projectiles ever produced by artificial means. Dr. Lawrence and his collaborators forced the hearts or nuclei of heavy or double-weight hydrogen, called deutons, to whirl about in a vacuum. Twice during each circular trip these deutons are fed more electrical energy. Finally, they are stepped up to the almost unbelievable speed of 3,000,000 volts, the most energetic particles ever controlled by man.
Then, these atomic bullets bombard targets of platinum, brass, wax and many other chemicals. Atomic disaster is the result of these collisions between the deuton bullets and the target atom hearts. The fragments of these atomic explosions flying out are caught and measured. These measurements tell the physicists the story of the atomic disaster.
Fragments of one kind fly out with a speed of 5,400,000 volts. As this is 2,400,000 volts more than the deuton bullet speed, small amounts of highly concentrated energy must have been released. These fragments, called protons, are the hearts of ordinary hydrogen atoms.
The companion fragment to the proton is called the neutron and has the same weight but no electrical charge. This particle also flies out with an energy of 2,400,000 volts.
The California scientists have interpreted the results of the collisions from the disintegration fragments. They conclude that the deuton bullet itself has been broken up and 4,800,000 volts of energy have been released as a result of this disaster. The deuton has to be very close to the target atoms heart before this disintegration will occur.
PITHECANTHROPUS HAD “MODERN” CONTEMPORARY, BRITON CLAIMS
Discovery of a jaw belonging to an ancestor of the present-day human species was reported at a session of the Anthropological Institute in London by Dr. L.S.B. Leakey.
The discovery, if accepted according to Dr. Leakeys interpretation, would mean that human history and evolution are pushed back into a much more distant past than anthropologists have assigned to man.
Dr. Leakey, whose excavations in East Africa have been a subject of much scientific discussion, announced that the new-found jaw represents a new species, which he called Homo kanamensis, in honor of Kanam in East Africa where the jaw was unearthed. The evidence of a new species is based on radiological examination of the jaw. This X-ray test, it was said, showed distinguishing features in the roots of the teeth, marking an evolutionary trend toward Homo sapiens, the species to which all modern races of men belong.
The man represented by these skeletal remains lived in the Lower Pleistocene age, it was declared, which would give this early species an antiquity of about half a million years. He would thus be a contemporary of Pithecanthropus erectus, Dr. Leakey declared. Pithecanthropus, so-called ape-man of Java, is a far more primitive type, and has long been rated as the most venerable proto-man ever found on Earth. The new discovery would imply that a much higher type of man, and a direct ancestor of the species of man that survived into modern times, lived on Earth at an ancient date.
The jaw found at Kanam shows a development of chin and arrangement of teeth that are similar to Homo sapiens, it was reported.
Another skull from East Africa, the Kanjera skull, was declared by Dr. Leakey to be Middle Pleistocene in antiquity and to represent a generalized primitive type of Home sapiens. The shape of the femur or thighbone shows that this man walked erect, he said. Development of a culture using hand axes of stone can be traced in East Africa, Dr. Leakey said.
