Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 130: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION So far the new element has not been named, but a few of its properties have been des- cribed. Chemicaily, it behaves like erbium, a rare-earth metal in the same group as the new one. It has a mass of 253 and a half-life of somewhere in the region of three hours. * AN INDICATION of the interest that orthodox science is show- ing lately in paranormal mat- ters is the Perrott Studentship in Psychical Research tenable at Trinity College, Cambridge. The Studentship, which is open to anyone who has com- pleted his or her twenty-first year at the time of election, is awarded to fhe applicant who, in the opinion of the Electors, is most capable of carrying out research, in con- sultation with a Supervisor, on some problem of psychical significance. For the purposes of the Studentship, psychical re- search is defined as “‘the in- vestigation of mental or physical phenomena which 129 seem prima facie to suggest (a) the existence of super- normal powers of cognition or action in human beings in their present life, or (5) the persistence of the human mind after bodily death.” Such work as this, carried out as it is under controlled scientific conditions, will un- doubtedly produce in the long run definitive evidence for or against the existence of extra- sensory phenomena. * THE CLAIM of certain fossil brachiopods to be the oldest examples of living things of which we have direct know- ledge, looks as though it is about to be shattered. Fossil alge have recently been found lying in a chert deposit be- neath the iron ore bed of Lake Superior. The age of the iron ore layer has been estimated as 1,300 million years, and for the chert 2,000 million years.. Thus these fossils seem to represent a form of life that existed farther back in the past. thanany other knownremains. conmmiclooolks.comn