A YOUNG JEWISH PHYSICIST WHO FOR YEARS HAS PURSUED A QUIET AND INCONSPICUOUS CAREER AT THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY IN JERUSALEM, TODAY STARTLED THE SCIENTIFIC WORLD BY PRODUCING EVIDENCE THAT THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE IS SHRINKING.
THE PALESTINE SCIENTIST, DR. S. SAMBURSKY, 36 YEARS OLD, PUBLISHED HIS PAPER IN THE PHYSICAL REVIEW HERE. IT WAS RECEIVED AS A THEORY AS STARTLING AS EINSTEIN’S ANNOUNCEMENT THAT SPACE IS CURVED OR DE SITTER’S HYPOTHESIS OF AN EXPLODING UNIVERSE.
ACCORDING TO DR. SAMBURSKY’S DEMONSTRATION, EVERY PART OF THE UNIVERSE IS SHRINKING, DOWN TO THE SMALLEST UNITS OF MATTER AND THE UNITS OF MEASUREMENT OF SPACE AND ENERGY.
THE DATA ON WHICH HE BASED HIS CALCULATIONS WERE RECENT DISCOVERIES MADE WITH THE 100-INCH REFLECTOR TELESCOPE AT MOUNT WILSON, CALIFORNIA, LARGEST IN THE WORLD.
SPECTROSCOPIC PHOTOGRAPHS MADE WITH THIS INSTRUMENT, ANALYZING THE LIGHT OF THE MOST DISTANT NEBULAE THAT COULD BE SEEN, SHOWED A “RED SHIFT” IN THEIR SPECTRA, EXPLAINED ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT THEY WERE MOVING RABIDLY AWAY FROM THE EARTH. THE DISTANT NEBULAE ARE ISLAND UNIVERSES OF STARS AT THE UTTERMOST LIMITS OF OBSERVABLE SPACE, AND ON THE BASIS OF THEIR APPARENT “RUNNING AWAY” AT SPEEDS CALCULATED AS HIGH AS 25,000 MILES A SECOND, IT WAS GENERALLY BELIEVED THAT THE UNIVERSE IS EXPANDING WITH EXPLOSIVE VELOCITY.
RECENT OBSERVATIONS DID NOT FIT-INTO THIS PICTURE. TODAY DR. SAMBURSKY OFFERED THE FURTHER EXPLANATION WHICH APPEARED TO GATHER IN ALL THE LOOSE ENDS. BY MATHEMATICAL DEMONSTRATION HE POINTED OUT THAT THE “RED SHIFT” WOULD ALSO BE NOTED PROVIDED EVERYTHING BETWEEN THE EARTH AND THE NEBULAE WAS SHRINKING SLOWLY AND UNIFORMLY.
AMONG THE ITEMS WHICH ARE SHRINKING, DR. SAMBURSKY SAYS, ARE THE RADIUS OF THE ELECTRON, SMALLEST OBSERVED PARTICLE OF MATTER, AND THE MEASURING ROD OF ENERGY, A UNIT KNOWN TO SCIENTISTS AS “H”, FIRST DESCRIBED BY MAX PLANCK.
THE SHRINKING “H,” HE ADDS, OFFERS A NEW EXPLANATION OF GRAVITY, WHICH HE PROMISES TO GIVE IN FULL IN A LATER PAPER.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
