Measured Milers

Like many another track fan, Dr. R. W. Parnell, physician in charge of Oxford's student health service, has often wondered what makes one athlete better than another. The obvious generalities didn't satisfy him. Hefty, well-muscled specimens usually make better shot-putters than the long, lanky types that might be high jumpers. Good runners usually have large hearts and slow pulses. But are there certain inborn physical characteristics that make one athlete a miler and another a dash man, one athlete a champion--and another an also-ran?

Last week in Edinburgh, Dr. Parnell told the British Association for the Advancement of Science that he thought he had the answer. After testing 583 Oxford students, he had found some striking differences between athletes and nonathletes, and between athletes in different events, had reduced his findings to a mathematical formula. The formula: using the metric system, divide a man's height by the cube root of his weight; multiply the result by the diameter of his heart (measured by X ray), and multiply again by his leg length. Middle and long-distance runners ought to score over 15,500; sprinters ought to score less. The highest man scored 18,869. "I predict," announced the doctor boldly, "that this student will break the mile record at Helsinki." A good many nonscientists were ready to agree. The high scorer: Britain's standout miler, Roger Bannister, who ran away from the best distance men in the U.S. at the Penn Relays last spring (TIME, May 7).

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British scientists at last week's meeting also heard that a few of their colleagues had all but solved one of the biggest problems in artificial insemination: the preservation of sperm over long periods. Frozen in a solution of glycerin (which acts as a cushion, preventing ice crystals from destroying cell life), spermatozoa from rabbits and poultry have already been preserved for as long as 33 days. "We have ... to contemplate," said Dr. A. S. Parkes of London's National Institute for Medical Research, "the possibility of an animal begetting progeny long after its death . . . We have also to realize that a similar possibility will exist for man ... It is one that will disturb deeply many who regard themselves as more than mere germ plasm containers. Time has lost its significance."

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