Abstract
I QUITE agree with Dr. Poole. I had previously discussed the question he raises in a lecture, “Recent Developments of Cosmical Physics”, published as a supplement to NATURE of Dec. 4, 1926; there is a similar discussion on p. 131 of my “Astronomy and Cosmogony”: “Our terrestrial atoms have so little capacity for spontaneous transformation that they may properly be described as ‘permanent.’ … If the terrestrial elements underwent any appreciable transformation in periods comparable with 1017 years, the resulting generation of heat by the earth's mass would make the earth too hot for human habitation”.
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JEANS, J. The Average Life Period of an Atom. Nature 122, 961 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122961a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122961a0
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