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About Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983 | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1955)
o . ANSWERS SOUGHT TO TANTALIZING QUESTIONS Research Chipping Away at Secrets of the Virus By ALTON L. BLAKESLEE Of The AssocUtrd Press BERKELEY, Calif, ifl The virus is king in a laboratory here where scientists seek answers to its tantalizing secrets. Viruses cause a host of diseas es human, animal and plant. This winter, as in many others, ene variety has put hundreds of children and adults to bed for from 24 hours to several weeks, suffering from what once was just called flu. To humans, viruses also bring polio, the-common cold, measles, smallpox, other, diseases. The virus caus ing one disease differs from that causing another. Was a virus the beinnine of life? Is a virus the cause of can cer? ' How does a virus carry out its fantastic sabotage of living cells, making the cell manmac ture hundreds of new viruses? Can viruses be created arti ficially by science? Can they be tamed, altered to make them harmless, free of their old sting of disease? And can viruses be pro duced intentionally which would do many good things for you, even perhaps protect you from radiation dangers of A bomb or H-bomb fallout? Theists, Atheists Debate Existence of 'Heaven9 By J. HUGH PRUETT Astronomer, Extension Division Oregon Hither Education System The response from readers of the recent article on Heaven prompts me to consider a some what related subject. When we realize the immensity of the starry expanse around us and the seemingly perfect order existing in it, we at times irresistibly cry, 'What is it all about, Is this a result of blind chance? Could there be purposeful intelligence behind it all?" ; Some are completely satisfied that the grandeur of the heavens was provided solely for the plea sure of the dwellers on our tiny globe. The less we know of the "great spaces," the easier it is to accept this thought. The agnos tic claims we do not know whether there is purpose and that we can never find out. The atheist says there is non; the theist, that there Is. ' ATHEISTIC'S COD Jhe editor of a magazine pub lished by the Free Thinkers once wrote me that he saw no purpose ful intelligence in the universe in general. "If we designate by the term "atheist" a person who does cot believe that any individual personality designed and created the universe, takes an interest in mankind and demands worship, then I am an atheist." He believ ed that "even the rudimentary knowledge of various sciences negatives such a god. The atheist makes mankind his god and ser vice to mankind his religion." A different view is given by fhe noted astronomer, the late Dr. Edwin B. Frost, who was con nected with the Yerkes obscrva tory of the University of Chicago for a quarter of a century. In "An Astronomer's Life" he wrote: "Everything that we learn from the observational point of view of astronomy seems to me to point precisely and always loward a purposeful operation of nature. When you accept-this, it seems to me to be inconsistent with physi cal sciences not to believe in a mind behind the universe. I can not imagine the planets getting together and deciding under what law they would operate. The order that we see does not appear to have been produced as the chance outcome of random motions co erced into some measure of uni formity ... SPIRITUAL BEING "Thus in a purposeful creation I find it not at all inconsistent to believe that there must be mind behind it, developing the purpose. I make the premise that it is a spiritual being . . . distince from matter, and that it is not subject to sense perception ... I find it justified in my own mind by the effects which this view has had on inspired men through the ages ... If the uni verse is purposeful, then it is plain to me that man . . must himself be distinctly a result of purpose rather than of accident "One thing illustrative of this spiritual attitude is that man has his curiosities, his wonder, his awe and his reverence for the material universe . . . which may indicate to him a divine power behind it." These are. the kinds of ques tions being asked and possibili ties being considered in the re search of the virus laboratory at the University of California. The laboratory is directed by Dr. Wendell M. Stanley, winner of a Nobel Prize for brilliant work on the nature of viruses. TARGET CELLS A virus works by invading a particular kind of cell the polio virus for example strikes nerve cells. Viruses cannot reproduce or duplicate themselves except inside their favorite target type of cell. But once Inside, they commandeer the machinery of the cell, forcing it to produce many new viruses. The damage they do inside the cell brings the symptoms of sickness. ' But viruses, all far tinier than bacteria, are not all bad. Some are useful. One, known as bac teriophage, destroys a type of bacteria found in the intestines. In the virus laboratory, our emphasis is on the virus itself, not the diseases viruses cause, nor treatments of those diseases," Dr. Stanley explains. , VIRUS IS KING "The virus is king. We want to learn what its basic properties are, what it consists of, how it docs what it does. From that knowledge could come the con trol measures or new and useful jobs for viruses." In one line of research, scien tists take viruses out of invaded cells, make slight changes in the virus structure, and stick the vi rus back inside the cell. Does the slight change alter the behavior of the virus, make it more or less virulent? . Viruses are precision crafts men, reproducing themselves with astonishing exactness. But once in every 100 million times, something goes wrong. The virus is changed or mutated, does not follow the parent pattern exactly. This spontaneous change alters its character, can make it more or less dangerous. DIFFERENCES SOUGHT Scientists want to learn what the changes are, how they are produced. The knowledge could show the way to taming some lethal viruses. The same kind of virus can occur in different strains or types. With precision techniques, research teams are determining the chemical differences between strains. It appears that the dif fernce can be in just one amino acid or protein brick out of which viruses are made. Dr. Stanley said. Laboratory researchers are chipping away at viruses, taking them apart bit by bit to learn what all the different parts are This opens the possibility of ul timately synthesizing viruses. making them artificially. VIRUS CULTURES Viruses are grown and harvest ed;, by the billions, by culturing them on living tissues. From tis sue cultures come viruses of polio, hog cholera, fowl pox, flu. many plant viruses lor use in research. And by new techniques, scien tists now can study what hap pens between one single virus particle and one single living cell. They hope to trace exactly what happens to the intricate machin ery of the cell when a virus takes control. Is a virus akin to or is it a gene, the chemical unit of heredity? in some ways, they act like genes. There Is reson to suspect that viruses were the first living or ganisms on earth, coming from tome spontaneous organization of protein material which was cap able of reproducing itself. At times viruses behave like living things. But they also can be crys tallized like salt without losing their ability to spring to life and reproduce. TAKES TEAMWORK Some viruses are known to cause certain types of cancers in mice, chickens and rabbits. Arc human cancers due to some yet unrecognized virus? Time will tell. Time and the Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore. Sun., Mar. 13, 1955, . 9A skills of scientists, ' working on projects such as those here. The assault on virus problems takes teamwork of physicists, chemists. physicians, plant pathologists, bacteriologists, botanists, ' There is no doubt that viruses exert profound influences on liv ing cells. To Dr. Stanley, that raises the Intriguing possibility of developing viruses which would do helpful, healthful things to liv ing things, from human to plant. UNLIMITED VISTAS . Protection against radiation damage or sickness could be one prospect. .. Right now some scientists are worried that increased exposure to radiation, as from atomic fall out, is doing definite harm to the genes of human beings, changing heredity so there inevitably will be more humans born as freaks or with inherent weaknesses. Some scientists see no chance of ever preventing such damage, or protecting against it. With this philosophy, Dr. Stan ley disagrees. "There is almost no limit to what science can do. Most of the things which are commonplace today seemed impossible at one time. They were impossible at one time, simply because we did not know enough. "The only limitation is our ig norance. If we keep learning, there is no limit to the vistas ahead of us." Flies to Paris LONDON to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt left, by plane Saturday for Paris after a 4-day visit to I Britain. ... ' ; GRAYS Bracer Unfratnt '-" for relief of sore mutclei, mua. ciilir aches and paint, bruUet,, Itchy toe i. Also palm assoc. at- 1 ed with rheumatism,, arthritis and lumbaRo. TIFFANY-DAVIS -J For Feof Troubles See Eugene's Leading Foal Specialist Dr. Hmdshuh 18 Years In Eugene Examination Free 874 Willamette Ph. 4 JIM Don't Be Satisfied With Less Than the Best! THE HOWARD ROTAVATOH 'BANTAM' IS THE BEST .Sim nil tiller that does a big job niti to a drpth of 3" first cut, S" second cut at walking pace. Used by professional growers in SI countries. 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