Minutae and Magnificae

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the great all- inclusive scientific society of the Western hemisphere, gives an annual prize of $1,000 for what it deems an outstanding scientific achievement. This year, the prize has been divided.

Half of it was given to Dr. L. R. Cleveland of Johns Hopkins University for research into the physiology of protozoa inhabiting the digestive tracts of termites and other animals. These protozoa are far from being the smallest animals known, but the layman can get an idea of their size from the fact that they dwell in the intestines of white ants.

The other half of the prize was given tr. Dr. Edwin Hubble of Mount Wilson Observatory for measurement of the distance to two remote spiral nebulae in Andromeda and Triangulum. He found in these nebulae numbers of variable stars. Measurement of the brightness of these stars established that they were 4,000 to 8,000 times as bright as the sun. From this date, he calculated the distance from the earth to those stars as 930,000 light years,* or about five and a half quintillion (5,500,000,000,000,000,000) miles. As compared to the belief of only a few years ago that the diameter of the sidereal universe was about 350,000 light years, this is rather a magnificent extension of the world's dimensions.

Thus, with one prize, does a great scientific society commend the progress of science toward the infinitely great, towards the infinitely small.

*A light year, common astronomical measure, is the distance that light travels in a year (at a known speed of about 186,000 miles a second).