University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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Research has always I men important at the I'niver-sity, though it often plays a part which seems unimportant to the average student. Such is the work of Allan II. Brown, professor of botany, who is best known for Ins studies on photosynthesis in plants. He is studying the way in which plants transform light energy into chemical energy. Although a botanist. Brown uses instruments of the physicists such as the mass spectrometer in his research on plants. The mass spectrometer measures the way in which the living plant uses oxygen and carbon dioxide in its respiration and photosynthesis. .Modern biology uses the tools and tricks of sciences as physics and chemistry to answer some long-standing biological questions. Brown's application of these biophysical methods to common-place botanical problems is but one example of this kind of activity in research laboratories on the Minneapolis campus. 24 ALLAN BROWN, professor of Bolony, studios the photosynthesis, oxygen production of greon plants.

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University Research Most of us have, at some time in our life, looked up at llit stars and asked ourselves questions about them, but few of us have had the opjMirtunity of I)r. Willem .J. buyten, professor and chairman of astronomy, to study the stars through the new $8,000 microscope given to the I’niversity by the national Science foundation and to answer some of the questions which come to the mind of all of us. The new blink microscope will supplement the $$50 microscope buy ten has l een using since 10 23 to study glass photographic plates of the stars. Recently buy ten has been looking for blue stars up to 100,000 light years away, between the Milky Way ami the next galaxy. Blue stars have a temperature up to 100,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun in contrast is a yellow star of about 10.000 degrees, while red stars of about $.000 degrees won't show up at the great distances being studied. Motion of intergalactic Stars was studied with the older blink microscope through comparison of plates taken 80 years apart. Now the astronomy department's work is to locate further blue stars. DR. WILLEM J. LUYTEN, professor and choirmon of astronomy, studies photographic plates for the blink comparator which he is using in his motion survey. THE PLATES were made at observotories at the University of Arizona ond in Mexico. Twin Cities’ smoke, soot and haze, plus o lack of necessary telescopes and cameras, mokes it impossible for luyten to moke his own photographs. 23

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Few .students have heard of the linear accelerator housed in an unimpressive, long, gray building bet ween the physical plant coal pile and I lie river. The linear accelerator, linae for short, is one of research scientist’s important tools used to expand knowledge of atomic structure. A small particle, like a proton or an alpha-particle, is introduced into a long tube. The tube has electrical coils and shield plates within; a vacuum is maintained so that the particles will not collide with gas molecules, losing energy as well as deviating from the path leading to a target at the end of the tube. The particles are accelerated by electrostatic forces to speeds approaching the speed of light, and this particle beam is directed at the target. Because the high-speed particles are harmful to tissue, the operators must be in a shielded control room when the machine is in operation. The operator, however, can observe and count the particles as they strike, deflect or interact with targets by the use of counters. These counters record the beam intensity at varied angles. BROWN ADJUSTS the highly sensitive machine (hot determines resulting amounts of oxygen. RECORDING the results in his notebook. Brown comes closer to understanding photosynthesis. 25