No. 4159 July 16, 1949 NATURE 119 results available for the relief of illness and restoration and heats the material. If the velocities of collision of health". He hoped that any medical research are too high, complete vaporization will occur, and workers who still possess an attitude of exaggerated hence it is essential that, for the capture of material suspicion or patronage of those who work in in the solid form, there should be a limit to the association with industrial production would be velocities of collision. It is shown that there is a encouraged to rid themselves of such prejudices, and lower limit of about 20 astronomical units at which that the industrial firms would do much more to material in suitable form can be captured, and the remove the barriers of secrecy between competitive accretion process itself sets up an upper limit of units. The progressive perversion of scientific dis­ about 1,000jv• astronomical units, where v km.jsec. coveries to the purposes of destruction, and the is the velocity of the typical particle. Matter distri­ encroachment of secrecy, made more urgently buted around the axis at a distance greater than this necessary the need ''to keep open, to widen, and to flows away, and at a less distance it flows towards multiply the legitimate channels of international the sun. Internal gravitation is responsible for the understanding and co-operation in science". He stream dividing into separate segments that contract recognized the appropriateness of the inspiration for lengthwise, the resulting aggregations being identified the conception of such a centre arising in Switzerland, with the comets. ' the chosen home of the international spirit in medical The disruptive field of the sun sets a limit to the activity", and rejoiced in the compliment to Britain initial mass of an aggregation, and certain quanti­ and to London, in its establishment here. tative results calculated for the masses of the In order not to dissipate its energies, the Founda­ aggregations agree reasonably well with estimates of tion will at first devote its attention to problems con­ the masses of comets-Halley's Comet, in particular. cerned with steroid hormones, and the reference It is believed that, a.s a result of the passage of the library will first be made as complete as possible in sun through a cloud of moderate dimensions, several this respect. thousand comets might be formed ; and if the theory Informal conferences, with ample opportunity for is correct, it seems that comets must be the most scientific workers invited a.s resident guests to take numerous celestial objects in the universe, assuming part in private discussion, will be held four or five that many of the stars have also acquired comets in times a year on chosen subjects. In addition, dis­ a similar manner. tinguished men of science will be asked to the Founda­ The centre of the solar system is not, of course, tion to lecture to invited audiences. There is a room the centre of the sun, and hence, in falling towards available for medical film displays. the former, the aggregations will possess angular The Foundation will further encourage international momentum about the centre of the sun, but their co-operation by helping, with fellowships and grants, initial orbits will necessarily be almost line-ellipses. research workers to work in countries other than their Subsequent perturbations by stars passing within own. A new journal of the Foundation will report the about 10,000 astronomical units from the sun occur proceedings of conferences, lectures, and original work and will be most effective when the comet is far from done with the support of the Foundation. the sun. If the comet thus perturbed has not a The accommodation, for residence or for meetings, sufficiently small perihelion distance, it will not be will be available, on repayment in certain instances, visible ; and it is shown that if the comet afterwards and at the discretion of the secretary, to nominees of comes near enough to the sun to be visible, its the Medical Research Council, British universities, eccentricity will exceed 0·8, so that the new orbit research associations, and scientific societies, when will still be nearly parabolic. not required for the Foundation's own purposes. It is important to notice that the theory confirms It is hoped that the Ciba Foundation will prove of what has been conjectured for many years-that the real value in furthering friendly, personal collabora­ comets and planets represent two solar families having tion and interchange of information, in promoting essentially different origins. scientific research and strengthening international fellowship. Cfl: G. E. w. WOLSTENHOLME (Secretary to the Executive Council) THE FOREST OF AE, DUMFRIES T has long been a dream of the forest officer in I charge of considerable areas of more or less out-of­ the-way in the British Commonwealth to ORIGIN AND FORMATION OF ensure havin 'Cailable a labour force to carry out COMETS the ever-Yec · g works in the area, and to establish orest v· Ia entirely under his own N a recent paper "On rigin of Comets" (Mon. y J:!ich w d e certain permanency of Not. Roy. stro. c., 108, 6 ; 1948), R. A. I o r. This o not always been understood I Lyttleton c a new theory of the origin of l:i the a · rative officers responsible for the comets 't.'f.'fhe UJ.t of the passage of the sun through government t e region, and the forest officer has a loud .rt\mterstellar dust. When such particles of been regarde with suspicion as endeavouring to get Ui;i enter the gravitational field of the sun, they a section of the population under his own administra­ ge to the 'accretion axis', which is the line tive charge. This has been the case where there have hr ugh the centre of the sun parallel to the direction been large existing forests. o motion of the cloud, and every particle will In the present forestry position in Great Britain, describe a hyperbolic orbit intersecting this axis. this reason does not apply. The forests have to be The situation provides favourable opportunities for created, often in situations where population is scanty, collisions at and near the axis, and when any two and towns and their amenities are distant. Here particles collide, a portion of their kinetic energy of the establishment of the forest village becomes an relative motion is transformed into internal energy essential. Moreover, British habits with the clearance ©1949 Nature Publishing Group 120 NATURE July 16, 1949 Vol. 164 of the forests from the countryside and the growth of SENIOR INSTRUCTORS (2, one in Civil and the other in Military Engineering), at the School of Military Engineering at Sialkot--The industrial conditions and their populations have Office of the High Commissioner for Pakistan, 36 Lowndes Square, resulted in the presence of a people in whom all forestry London, S.W.l (July 27). ASSISTANT IN RESEARCH in electron microscopy-The Secretary, instincts and forestry sense have long disappeared. Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, Free School Lane, One of the methods of giving birth once again to this Cambridge (July 27). RESEARCH ASSISTANT IN COMPUTATION in the Department of Mathe· intuitive forestry sense in the countryside--newly matics, and a LECTURER or ASSISTANT LECTURER IN APPLIED MATHE· created into a forest countryside-is to gather the MATJOS-The Registrar, The University, Sheffield (July 30). LECTURER (A) IN GEOGRAPHY at Farouk I University, Alexandria indispenable labour supply into forest villages fully -The Egyptian Education Bureau, 4 Chesterfield Gardens, equipped with all the amenities in the modern sense. London, W.l (July 30). LECTURER IN THE l.JEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL BOTANY-The A now village of this type is being built in the Secretary and Registrar, University College of North Wales, Bangor Forest of Ae*. The forest is situated in Dumfries­ (July 30). MECHANIOAJ, ENGINEERS (Senior Experimental Officer or Experi· shire in the beautiful southern uplands some ten mental Officer grade, unestablished) at a Ministry of Supply Research miles north of Dumfries. The village takes its name and Development Establishment in the south of England, to run experi· mental workshop engaged in modification of earth·moviug equipment from the Water of Ae, a tributary of the Annan. The and maintenance of all types of such plant-The Ministry of Labour Forest of Ae is the first new forest in Scotland which and National Service, Technical and Scientific Register (K), York House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2, quoting C.387/49A (July 30). has required a new village to be built to house its LECTURER IN POULTRY HUSBANDRY at the Shropshire Farm workers, though it is unlikely t hat it will be the last. Institute, Walford, near Baschurch-The Secretary for Education, County Buildings, Shrewsbury (July 30). The oldest plantations are now twenty years old. LECTURER IN BIOCHEMISTRY-The Secretary, The University, The forest covers an area of 10,683 acres. Some of Aberdeen (July 31). ASSISTANTS (4) IN PHILOSOPHY (one in the Department of LogiC this land will be maintained under agriculture ; the and three in the Department of Moral Ph!lr.sophy)-The Secretary, rest is at present regarded as lying too high to be The University, Edinburgh (July 31). READER IN PHYSIOLOGY iu the Medical School of King's CollegE>­ plantable, that is to say, above 1,200 ft. The total The Registrar, University Office, 23 St. Thomas's Street, Newcastle· planted area amounts to 3,000 acres, and another upou-Tyne (August l ). J,ECTURER IN HmlAN PHYSIOLOGY, and a LECTURER IN EXPERI· 4,500 remains to be planted.