Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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'I' bfi EF El K? El El Hi El El -4 FF lil 5145231531514 1 EEE- El FF FEE! El ffl Ki E454 iii iflliilli PICNE4 H4 HK! ill EilZtFIiPZ1PBvIl WP? ' P: bomb and the end of the War, when the world sought re-assurance against the apprehensions they held for the bomb, that another jewish-American, Bernard Baruch, was appointed to the committee to decide disposal of the dreaded wea- pon. However, it has been not only the past few years that have produced lew- ish scientists of great repute. In 1845 Elie Metchnikoff was born of jewish parents in southern Russia. Before the age of twenty he declared, I am na- turally talented - I am ambitious to be- come a distinguished investigatorf and these words were almost prophetic. True to his own work, he was talented and ambitious, but his ambition pro- gressed to impetuosity, and his talent was that of a thinker and not of an ex- perimenter. Clumsy and crude, as if his hands refused to obey his brain, Metchnikoff was forced to leave the practical work,'i as he called it to younger and better skilled assistants. Metchnikoff was always trying to get ahead of himself. He sent papers to scientific journals without sufficient proof of his statements. Oftimes he discovered his own mistakes and hastily wrote to the editors to prevent publication of his treatises. If, on the other hand, his enthusiastic theses were rejected, he be- came indignant, threatening and often attempting falthough always unsuccess- fully, to take his life. He became in- volved in scientific feuds with his su- periors and teachers. While in school he repeatedly skipped classes, not for 12 fun or pleasure, but rather to wallow through innumerable learned tomes. In spite of his contemplated suicides, his rash outbursts of arguments, his in- satiable curiosity, and his impetuousity, Metchnikoff was a great thinker. It was he who formulated the theories con- cerning the scavengers and protectors of the human body - the white blood corpnscles. It is he to whom we are indebted for great advances in the pre- vention of disease. He received many honors for his work. It was Metchnikoff who succeeded Louis Pasteur as direc- tor of the Pasteur Institute, the greatest scientific research laboratory of the time. Contemporary and co-receiver of the Nobel Prize with Metchnikoff was Paul Ehrlich, born in Silesia, Germany. He, contrary to Metchnikolf, was a gay and optimistic man: but, like Metchnikoff, 'he was ambitious and impetuous. He, too, involved himself in arguments with teachers. Educated at several German universities, Ehrlich devoted his life to medicinal chemistry. His method of testing and measuring diphtheria anti- toxin brought him early fame. His great- est invention was an arsenic compound called saliarsan which combats one of the most loathsome and terrible de- stroyers of life and health. This German- jew learned to employ the favorite poison of murders to save life In an obscure German town, about one century ago, was born a child of German-jewish parents. This child, Al-

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' liKllElZllEl8lf!GMBlD3ll!SlQ!llEi8lBilDilV.l!il2!llLilll!Mi23l3ll!liElZl'!l5!liiillililillidliwlkdifilNlilllilkillidmlBrllkfllxllkillldlifllllll'-S2124121 I THE JEWISH CONTRIBUTION T0 SCIENCE By Cary Somers MONC the famous scientists of the world are found a multitude who, although bearing the names and na- tionalities of many nations, are members of the same foundling race. These peo- ple trace their ancestry back to the various provinces of Palestine. Although labeled a people without a country, they have become the adopted sons of many countries. Persecuted and op- pressed, the object of a severe prejudice, they have relentlessly struggled for recognition. Many of their number have risen above these handicaps to receive great honors in their respective fields. But for the cooperation of one particu- lar group of such scientists, the Allied Nations might have lost the cause for freedom which they sought so pains- takingly. The situation is most graphi- cally described as a race - a race be- tween the scientists of a power-crazed, lustful, totalitarian state and those of a brotherhood of nations who stood for peace, security, and fraternity. One of the pioneers in this race was a former Swiss patent clerk who had been startling the world with his radical theories and mathematical genius. By means of a simple alegbraic formula, the man predicted the tremendous energy unleashed by the fission of atomic par- ticlcs. This was the starter's gun in our international marathon, fired by a man we now claim as one of our own citizens. His name is a familiar one, he is called Albert Einstein. Another important figure in the race was Dr. Lise Meitner, jewish assistant to Prof. Otto Hahn, who, together with him, took up the clues to the puzzle left them by numerous physicists. Although at the time they did not know it, they succeeded in splitting the nucleus of an uranium atom. Dr. Meitner was per- secuted by Hitler and eventually forced to leave Berlin and Hee to Stockholm. Her knowledge and the results of her experiments played an integral part in blazing the trail of discovery. Unknow- ingly, she and Prof. Hahn had stumbled upon the greatest scientific discovery of the age. It was Dr. Meitner, however, who realized the import of their experi- ments and revealed to the world all she had concluded. Another obstacle in the race was surmounted. Tremendous en- ergy was liberated by this nuclear fis- sion, and scientist and layman alike realized the potentiality of such a force as a weapon of destruction. In 1942 a special laboratory, dealing with the technical problems involved in putting together the threads of the mystery into a bomb, was erected in New Mexico. The direction and organization of this laboratory was left to Dr. I. Robert Oppenheimer, an American of jewish origin. The development of the bomb itself has been largely due to his genius and the inspiration and leadership he has given to his associates. lt is signi- Hcant, also, that after perfection of the ll

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EMMMlEEMMEEUdEME4EMIEM lHHElEMEMEMEMEBlMHMMMMMMML8I bert Ab1'aha1n Michelson, was to have the distinction of being the first Ameri- can to receive a Nobel Prize. He came to America as an infant, and even in his early school years he showed un- usually keen scientific ability. In 1869 he so impressed President Grant that he was awarded a special appointment to the United States Naval Academy. He soon decided that science and not war- fare was his preference of profession. Before the age of thirty years he achieved wide recognition because of the accuracy of his measurement of the velocity of light. Even though his find- ings were more precise than those of any of the learned men in history, Michelson was not satisfied. He set out to build himself a mile-long vacuum tube so that he would be unhampered by atmospheric conditions. In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize, the first American to do so. Although he died before he could finish his great work, he prepared the groundwork for many other scientists. If, in the future, a permanent cure is found for poliomyelitis, much of the credit will go to Dr. Simon Flexner. Dr. Flexner, born in Louisville, Ken- tucky, of jewish parents, received many degrees and honors from great institu- tions in many countries. He studied the causes and treatment of a number of diseases and made valuable contribu- tions to the science of medicines. For many years he sought the cause of in- fantile paralysis and finally succeeded in isolating the microbc which wrought havoc in the nerve tissues of children. Dr. Flexner was appointed director of the Rockefeller Institute, Where he re- mained many years. His name has al- ways ranked with the foremost disease conquerors of the world. At one time diphtheria was one of the most dreaded of human ills. A suit- able method for determining suscepti- bility to the disease was sought. In 1913, a Hungarian jew, Dr. Bela Schick dis- covered a suitable test which still bears his name. This discovery saved not only countless lives but thousands of dollars worth of diphtheria anti-toxin also. For this work he received the gold medal award for services to humanity from the New York Academy of Medicine. To understand the fame of another famous jewish American doctor, we must know the health conditions in the deep South. The poorer white people of this region were affected by a fear- some disease called pellagra. No one was able to determine the cause, no microbe, no bacteria, no virus - noth- ing. In 1913, Dr. joseph Coldberger, a servant of the U. S. Public Health Serv- ice, was sent to Georgia to study this strange disease. He found that it was a vitamin-deficiency disease and recom- mended a treatment. His knowledge also contributed much to the study of other vitamin-deficiency diseases, saving many lives and untold suffering. No list of jewish American scientists is complete without the mention of Charles Steinmetz, electrical wizard. Handicapped by physical deformities, 13