The Average Life Period of an Atom

Abstract

IN the first Henry Herbert Wills Memorial Lecture, published in NATURE of Nov. 3, Sir James Jeans has tentatively put forward the view that possibly no atom is eternal, but that they all spontaneously undergo transformations similar to that observed in the radioactive series. In fact, he goes rather further than this, for he suggests that even a hydrogen atom is finally itself converted entirely into radiation by the complete combination of the proton and electron composing it. It is to be observed that he assumes that this process will not be affected by any temperature, or other external set of physical conditions, which can be possibly attained in the existing universe. If the process occurs at all accordingly, it should occur on the earth and hence be accessible to our direct experience.