| VOLUME 1 |
| AUGUST, 1926 NO. 5 |
THE
MAGAZINE
OF
SCIENTIFICTION
HUGO GERNSBACK, Editor
DR. T. O’CONOR SLOANE, Ph.D.; Associate Editor
WILBUR C. WHITEHEAD, Literary Editor
C. A. BRANDT, Literary Editor
Editorial and General Offices: 53 Park Place, New York, N. Y.
Extravagant Fiction Today |
Cold Fact Tomorrow |
“IMPOSSIBLE” FACTS
By Hugo Gernsback
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ften, while reading one of our modern scientifiction tales, we are wont to explode at some highly "impossible" plot concocted by some ingenious author. And often we receive a letter from some reader who vents his opinion in no uncertain terms that such and such a thing "cannot be within the realms of possibility."
As we mentioned several times, it is difficult to ascertain today just what is possible and what impossible, for the most "impossible" things have become commonplaces.
Before condemning anything as "impossible," therefore, we should be most careful and a lot more tolerant than we are. Some of the most recently improbable things are now facts. For instance, if some one should come along and tell you a wild tale about ice, boiling hot, you would probably laugh at him. Nevertheless, Professor P. W. Bridgman, of the Carnegie Institute, in Washington, while subjecting water to a pressure of 300,000 pounds to the square inch, found that under such tremendous pressure water first becomes solid, turning into ice, although it is nearly boiling hot. Not only is this "impossibility" a fact, but we all "know," and have been taught, that water can not be compressed very much. Just the same, Dr. Bridgman has compressed water to 80 per cent. of its original volume!
When you stand in the hot sun, you are pretty sure that our luminary is sending down a goodly quantity of heat, which makes it so uncomfortable for you on a hot summer day. Tell the man on the street that the sun sends absolutely no heat to the earth, and he will be ready to entrust you to an alienist. Nevertheless, the "impossible" fact remains that the earth receives no heat whatsoever from the sun because the earth and sun are both immersed in a vacuum. If you have ever seen a vacuum bottle, you know that no heat can be transmitted through a vaccum. If you do not believe this statement, go to the top of a snow-capped mountain, where you are nearer the sun than at sea level, and you will find that, instead of the air being much hotter there, it is much cooler. That is so because the sun sends us, not heat rays, but light rays, which light rays are transformed into heat when they strike a physical body, such as our atmosphere, which then retains the heat. But five miles above the surface of the earth, on the hottest summer day, the temperature is below freezing.
It is "impossible" for a living being to live for any length of time without food. How long can a living being go without food? Four years. "Impossible!" you say. Nevertheless, a number of bugs can live nearly four years without taking any food whatsoever—an "impossible" fact, but true. Even a snake can live two years without food, which brings us to an inquiry from one of our authors, who wishes to know if it is possible for life to go on without atmosphere.
Our answer to that question is "Yes." Just because a human being, or any other living creature on earth, can not live without air—that is, without oxygen diluted with nitrogen—it does not mean that life on some other planet, or even on our earth, is impossible without air. We know that nature has the peculiar trick of adapting living organisms to practically any conditions. It is possible to freeze fish and keep them frozen for months, after which they can be thawed out and revived. It would seem to us therefore that some form of life is certainly possible without air. What this form of life would be, we have no way of knowing. Such a creature would in all probability have neither flesh nor blood, but that does not preclude the possibility of its existence. Most insects have no flesh or blood for that matter, but they manage to get along very well.
Indeed, recent observations on our satellite, the moon, have given indications that although it is devoid of practically all atmosphere, signs of life have appeared here and there. If there is life on the moon, and I for one really believe there is, then whatever life there is must go on with practically no air.
Furthermore, to aggravate the case, that particular form of life must pass through a rather uncomfortable cycle every few weeks. In the first cycle, the moon is subject to a generous amount of heat wherever the sun's rays strike the surface of the moon—only to be plunged into the most terrific cold imaginable when the sun sinks below the horizon. Because the moon has no atmosphere, the little heat which is absorbed by the rocks or the ground vanishes almost immediately after the sun stops shining, and the cold of interstellar space sets in. We do not know what form of life can survive such a terrific and sudden change of "climate," but it is quite likely that there are creatures evolved for such an existence also. If there are such beings the possibility of any circulatory system in their bodies is remote, because such liquids surging through their bodies would, of necessity, be frozen during the cold period. But perhaps we are wrong here, too. Maybe there are such liquids and such a circulatory system. If the creature freezes during one cycle, perhaps it is thawed out in the hot period, and life goes on the same as it does on earth. If it is possible for living creatures to live at the bottom of the ocean, under a tremendous pressure of as high as 8,831 pounds to the square inch, then it is very likely possible for life to exist under worse circumstances.
Mr. Hugo Gernsback speaks every Monday at 9 P. M. from WRNY on various scientific and radio subjects.
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