Eugene register-guard., March 21, 1962, Image 24

Pa Bzz EUGENE REGISTER-GUARD, Wed., Mar. 21, 1962
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Bacteria Are World's UseftdMidgetq L
ilndu jends a complete,
. 20-volume tet of the World
Book Encyclopedia to Rob
ert Cumming, age 13, Eas
tern, Conn, or hie question:
' How Big Are Bacteria?
. A dozen bacteria can ride
on a speck of dust and a col
ony of millions can thrive in
the smear of a greasy finger
print. A germ of good topsoil
may be the home of ten mil
lion becteria. Countless num
bers of these midgets of the
plant world swim in every
thimbleful of river water and
millions more crowd In every
i dewy leaf. We need a special
r unit to measure the size of
' tiny living things and the most
' powerful of microscopes to
' get a glimpse of them.
' - Billions of bacteria make
i Andy awards each day a
tuU iet of tba World Book
Encyclopedia for tha first
question he selects to answer.
When a second question Is
answered a large world globe
or atlas Is awarded Questions
sra accepted from teen-age
or less-than-teen-age readers
They should be addressed to
.the Register-Guard, 976 High
St., Eugene Andy prefers
that questions ba written on
f'Ostcarda, rather tban In lat
er form.
their homes In your body. You
are host to more of these
midget plants than there are
people in the world, more va
rieties of bacteria than there
are nations in the world.
Once in a while, a hostile bac
terium invades your body,
causing sickness. The vast ma
jority are your servants.
These friendly bacteria aid
digestion, fight invaders and
perform such vital duties that
you could not live without
them.
In the teeming world of bac
teria there are the whales and
the mice. But the majority of
the vast horde fall midway be
tween the giants and the
midgets. Bacteriologists as
sume the average-sized bacte
r rium to measure about one
25,000th of an inch though
few bacteria are exactly the
average size. This microscopic
scale of life calls for its own
unit of measurement.
Scientists tend to use the
metric system of tens as a
standard for their units and
the tape measure of the bac
teria world is taken from the
millimeter, which is one thou
sandth part of a meter. The
micron is one thousandth part
of a millimeter and thia tiny
unit Is the basis of measuring
the tiny bacterium. You can
get an Idea of its size by com
paring it with a hair of your
bead. The hair is about 60
microns in diameter which
is just about as long as a row
of sixty average-sized bacteria.
The majority of bacteria
measure about one micron in
diameter. The average fellow
may be five or ten times as
wide as some of his small cou
sins. Some of the giant bacte
ria are 13 to 25 microns wide.
Bacteria come in assorted
shapes. Some are round balls,
some sausage-shaped, some
are long threads and others
have fine, trailing streamers.
Packed together in bulk, it
would take about a trillion
bacteria of assorted sizes to
fill a thimble. A few of these
midgets prey on plant and
animal tissues, causing dis
eases. Others help the vital
processes of plant and ani
mal tissues. Countless others
toil in the soil, in the air and
in the water. Without them
life on earth would be impos
sible. Without bacteria in the soil,
there would be no decay. The
land would soon be littered
with sewage and corpses. The
purest lake would be murky
without bacteria to' break
down its debris into simple
chemicals. There would be no
nitrates or other chemical
foods for the plants. As the
plant world perished, we
should run out of food and
oxygen. .
a
Andy sends a Hammond's
International World Globe
to Merlene Norton, age 10,
Clayton, Ala. for her ques
tion: What la a Magma?
The ground on which we
stand, the lofty mountains and
the hidden floors of the sea
form a rocky crust which
wraps the globe in a sort of
orange peel about 30 miles
thick. The temperature of the
earth's crust is below the
melting point of the elements,
mixtures and compounds from
which these rocks are made
which is why the crust is froz
en solid. .
In a few cracks and crevices
deep in the crust, the temper
ature soars and the various
minerals reach melting point.
We get a pool of buried mag
ma. The molten mixture may
contain other rocky minerals
normally frozen solid on the
surface. It may also seethe
with foamy bubbles of gas and
water vapor. In any case, the
temperature of the magma is
hot enough to melt rock.
Neither Solid, Liquid, Nor Gas
Future Spaceships May Run on Plasma
WASHINGTON Engines of
future spaceships may be nin
en plasma, a substance that is
neither solid, liquid, nor gas,
! A plasma is a substance so
hot that its atoms have violent
ly smashed one another to bits.
The result is an angry swarm of
electrons and positive ions, the
remainder of the atoms from
which electrons have been
tripped away.
Until recently, few people ex
cept astronomers realized that
most material in the universe,
Including the stars and many
loose particles in space, is in
this unfamiliar "fourth state"
of matter, the National Geo
graphic Society says. Only in
exceptional places, as on earth,
does matter settle down Into
solids, liquids, or gases.
The Bun, being a star, is large
ly nlasma. So is the visible path
of a bolt of lightning, and so
are the earth s Ionosphere ana
the Van Allen radiation belts
that present a hazard for astro
nauts. Man-made plasmas occur
in neon and fluorescent lamps,
electric area, the exhaust of jet
and rocket engines, and, terri
fyingly, the fireball of a hydro
gen bomb.
" Recently, scientists , of the
Republic Aviation Corporation
reported success in developing
t "plasma pinch" space engine
that will spit out bursts of plas
ma at 100,000 miles per hour.
Though the thrust itself Is tiny,
they believe It can push a ve
hicle through space. Space ships
need little power once they
have overcome the earth's gravi
tational pull.
But the vehicles must pro
duce some force over weeks or
months to reach their distant
destinations. The Republic plas
ma pinch engine reportedly can
run for a year on a pound of
nitrogen. Solar cells convert
the energy of the sun Into elec
tricity, which turns the nitrogen
gas into a plasma and then
squeezes the substance with
magnetic power to squirt it out
at enormous speed.
The plasma may reach a tem
perature as high as 200,000 de
grees Fahrenheit. In contrast
the 3,000 degrees of the gas
flames on a kitchen stove seem
almost chilly. Until recent
man could not create tempera
tures above some 7,000 degrees,
though in nature they range
into millions of degrees on the
hottest stars. Plasma research
has led to creation of sustained
temperatures up to 40,000 de
grees and momentary duplica
tion in the laboratory of the
fantastic stellar temperatures.
Control of thermonuclear re
actions in superheated plasmas
is a major aim of current re
search, Physicists have already
succeeded in solving many of
the initial problems. Eventual
ly they hope to build a machine
that will make fusion power
available for public use, just as
fission power is now.
Fission the breaking up of
uranium and other heavy ele
ments produces vast amounts
of energy as does fusion the
joining of hydrogen atoms to
make helium atoms. But fusion
has important advantages: It
produces no radioactive waste,
and it uses heavy hydrogen as
fuel rather than rare uranium.
With a virtually inexhaustible
supply of heavy hydrogen in the
oceans, the fuel equivalent of
300 gallons of gasoline might be
extracted for as little as 4 cents.
In a world of shrinking oil and
coal supplies, fushion power
could solve man's energy needs
for millions of years.
To Your Good Health
Shingles a Virus Infection of a Nerve
By JOSEPH G. MOLNEK
Dear Doctor Molner: My
husband has had shingles for
several months, and although
he has not been to a doctor,
he has been told by several
people that there is nothing
to be done but to wait for
them to heal. Others have told
me about people who have
gone to the doctor and were
cured in a few weeks.
In this modern day and age,
surely something has been
discovered to take care of
them. B.O.R.
Shingles is a virus infection
of a nerve and even in these
times we know almost nothing
about curing virus infections al
though we can prevent aome of
them with vaccines.
In shingles, we can do mighty
little to cure an attack, except
to support general health. This
is important. We also can give
medication to relieve the pain
and this, too, is important.
Dear Doctor Molner: How
many of the strongest sleep
ing pills are considered an
overdose? My friend says 20
and I say 10. MRS. R. S.
The things people worry
about! But your inquiry raises a
useful point. I've been trying for
years to explain that the dosage
of any drug must be the amount
that fits the patient's needs.
What's right for one person
isn't exactly right for another.
So for some people, one
strong sleeping pill would be
an overdose; for another, per
haps enough. But 10 let alone
20 would be an overdose for
anybody. I don't necessary
mean a fatal overdose, since
some people might live through
such an amount, especially if
they received prompt medical
care. But either would be ex
tremely dangerous.
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