Planting fruit trees alone the streams  to prevent deaths alone the streams from contaminated water.

 

*** g96 5/8 pp. 28-29 Watching the World ***

Wonder Tree

British scientists have discovered seeds that can purify drinking water without the use of costly chemicals. The crushed seeds of the Moringa oleifera tree of northern India attract and stick to bacteria and viruses, which can then be skimmed off or trapped in filter beds, reports The Times of London. The versatile seeds can also be used to make cooking oil, soap, cosmetics, lamp fuel, and an ointment for skin infections. The tree is easy to cultivate, withstands drought, can act as a windbreak, and even provides fuel and pulp for making paper. Consequently, researchers recommend planting these trees to produce seeds that will help prevent millions of deaths every year that result from the drinking of contaminated water.

 

 

Planting fruit trees along the streams to prevent death from disease.

 

*** g91 5/22 pp. 20-22 Cholera Outbreak—A West African Diary ***

Cholera Outbreak—A West African Diary

By Awake! correspondent in West Africa

DECEMBER: An elderly woman was the first victim. Diarrhea was the first symptom, watery and frequent. Then came vomiting. Cramps knotted her thighs and belly. Her breathing became rapid and shallow, her skin wrinkled, and her eyes sank in their sockets. Forty-eight hours later she was dead.

The following day, another person in the same house was stricken, then another. Next, some neighbors got sick. The disease began to appear in nearby villages and towns. The story was the same—diarrhea, vomiting, and in a third of the cases, death.

The Pasteur Institute examined stool samples and confirmed the worst fears of medical experts. It was the disease that has scourged 93 nations in the past 25 years, a disease so lethal that its very name elicits fear: cholera!

In the capital of one West African land, I witnessed some of the drama attending the outbreak of this dreadful disease. Following is a diary of the events of that year.

“No Need to Fear”

February 13: Amid growing rumors, a newspaper carries the front-page news: “Diarrhoea: 70 Dead but Crisis Subsides.” The article assures its readers that there is “no need to fear an outbreak of cholera.”

April 25: I ask Dr. L. Bakka, a pediatrician and head of the nation’s Control of Diarrhoeal Diseases program, if the persistent cholera rumors are true. “They’re true,” he says. “There is cholera and it is widespread. Out of 13 districts, 10 have cholera.”

I ask about mass inoculation. “We won’t be vaccinating people,” he says. “It doesn’t do much good either in preventing or in controlling an epidemic. The present vaccines are effective for only three to six months.”

“Are you saying that the vaccines are of no value in combating an outbreak?” I ask.

“No, it is the World Health Organization that says it.”

“Have you been vaccinated?”

“No. And I’ve been in many areas where there is cholera, and I have treated many cholera patients.”

Bakka explains that cholera is caused by a certain type of vibrio, or bacterium, that gets into the body through contaminated food or water. The vibrios then collect in the intestines, where they multiply and produce a poisonous substance that causes diarrhea and vomiting. These vibrios can then get into drinking water or on food contaminated by unwashed hands—and the disease is passed on.

The doctor points to his mouth. “The important thing is what goes in here,” he says. It is said: “You can eat cholera and you can drink cholera, but you can’t catch cholera!”

Was the disease likely to hit the capital? “It already has,” says Bakka. “We’ve admitted five cases to the hospital today.”

May 7: The overburdened hospital is ill-equipped to cope with a cholera epidemic. The cholera patients are isolated in a large room with a concrete floor and a single ceiling fan. Toilets are too far away to be used, so excreta is collected in bedpans and plastic buckets, then disinfected before disposal. There are now 12 patients—men, women, and 2 children. All look exhausted and miserable.

The stricken lie on wooden benches. There are no beds, no hospital meals, no private rooms. Yet, nobody complains. Life is being offered to these emaciated and shriveled victims, life in the form of one-quart [1 L] plastic bags marked “Ringer’s Lactate.” It is a solution that is fed intravenously.

I learn that cholera kills through dehydration. As vital body fluids and essential salts are lost through vomiting and diarrhea, the human body withers and dies. The lactate drips serve to rehydrate, or replace, these fluids and maintain them until diarrhea and vomiting stop—usually within a few days. The drug tetracycline kills the vibrios and shortens the duration of the illness.

The News Breaks

May 29: A British radio news broadcast breaks the news that cholera has killed from 300 to 600 people throughout this country. I know one of them. When the father left for work, his young son was happily playing. When he came home in the evening, the boy was dead.

This afternoon the local branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses decides to send information to every congregation in the country, explaining how to guard against the disease.

June 2: Beds covered with plastic sheets have now been moved into the cholera ward. A dozen new patients arrive each day. Those who arrive in a state of shock and are unable to drink ORS (Oral Rehydration Salts) solution are given lactate drips, often three or four quarts [3-4 L] in the first hour. After a day or two, they are released. Mild cases are put on ORS and sent home after a few hours.

Supplies of Ringer’s lactate and ORS packets pour into the country and are rushed to provincial health centers, where the demand is presently greater than in the city. Over 600,000 packets of ORS have already been distributed. The government is providing vehicles to transport medical teams and supplies to areas in need. Radio broadcasts and leaflets inform the public as to how they can avoid contracting the disease and what to do if symptoms appear. Sound cars patrolling the capital carry the same message.

June 10: Admissions at the cholera ward jump to a peak of 71. Fifteen nurses now staff the clinic. Relatives of patients work with them to care for the stricken. The room is full—two to a bed. Some patients lie on the floor.

People arrive carrying their sick on their backs. Some have walked for miles and are soaked with excreta. Their eyes plead: ‘Can you save the life of my child . . . my brother . . . my mother?’

June 21: A press release states: “The Ministry of Health . . . wishes to assure the general public that there is no need for any alarm or panic.” Yet people are alarmed! There are reports that Ringer’s lactate is being hoarded. Taxi drivers charge exorbitant fares to carry cholera patients to the hospital—if they take them at all. Children walking to school past the cholera clinic are seen covering their mouths and noses with their hands. Some people are foolishly taking tetracycline daily, hoping this will ward off the disease.

I speak with Alafia, a student nurse at the hospital. She is clearly agitated. “One of the cooks at our hostel has come down with cholera!” she exclaims. “Some nurses are taking vacation time to avoid dealing with the outbreak.”

But not all shy away from helping out. Susan Johnson is matron in charge at one cholera clinic. Though she is usually a jovial person, the strain is showing today. As I enter the ward, a patient’s relative is taking a paper cup and dipping it into an urn of clean water. “Don’t put your hands in there!” Susan snaps. “Contaminated water is how this disease is spread!” She looks at me and says in frustration: “They just don’t understand.”

The Battle Drags On

September 1: Throughout the country, there have now officially been reported 10,200 cases, 796 deaths. Most deaths have been when victims have not received medical treatment or have not received it fast enough.

Of the 3,341 patients admitted to the clinics here, only 1 in 93 has died. Most of these were already dying when they were brought in. Some were unconscious due to advanced dehydration. At that point the blood grows thick and black, and veins collapse. As an emergency measure, the Ringer’s lactate is infused directly into the jugular vein or the femoral artery.

December 30: The outbreak has waned. Roughly 14,000 people have been stricken, and 1,213 have died. It is ironic. Doctors know what causes cholera, how it is spread, and how to save the lives of victims. But cholera is far from vanquished. Man’s helplessness in preventing such epidemics dramatically underscores Jesus’ prediction that “pestilences” would mark these “last days.”—Luke 21:11; 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

I showed Dr. S. Harding, a key figure during this epidemic, the Bible text at Isaiah 33:24. This foretells a time when “no resident will say: ‘I am sick.’” He looked carefully at the verse, then said: “If that’s what the Bible says, it must be true.” Indeed, it is true! And what a relief it will be when that promise is finally fulfilled!

Planting fruit tree alone the streams to prevent death from rising oceans, by used the leafs from fruit trees to build reefs out of concrete that full of nutrients that feed the sea creates that form into reefs.

 

*** g89 7/22 pp. 7-9 Oceans—Who Can Save Them? ***

Oceans—Who Can Save Them?

ONE fall day in 1988, nine men and four women jumped off a New York City bridge—all at once. They plummeted some 70 feet [20 m] and then hung motionless, dangling from mountaineering ropes, waiting. Their intent? To block the passage of a barge loaded with sludge to dump in the ocean. The outcome was anticlimactic; the barge simply went around the protesters by another route and dumped its refuse as usual. The protesters were finally arrested.

Many others are struggling doggedly, but by legal means, to prevent the death of the world’s oceans. Treaties abound, and laws have proliferated. Legislation has been enacted that forbids the dumping of plastics into the ocean. Tankers have been forbidden to dump their oily waste water. Some rivers and shorelines have successfully been cleaned up.

In overview, though, triumphs are rare and failures common. Environmentalists fear that as long as it is cheaper to dump wastes into the ocean, there will be those who dodge the laws, just as the sludge barge mentioned earlier dodged the protesters. Sadly, what often decides these questions is money, the profit motive. Protecting the environment yields little of it and costs plenty.

Is God to Blame?

Yet, Time magazine saw the pollution problem as urgent enough to forgo naming a “man of the year.” Instead, its January 1989 issue named the beleaguered Earth “Planet of the Year.” Interestingly, though, such articles on environmental crises at times take deeply cynical views of the Bible.

The article in Time opened by quoting Ecclesiastes 1:4: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever.” “No, not forever,” the article’s author commented. “At the outside limit, the earth will probably last another 4 billion to 5 billion years.” The same author later remarked that the command to the first human pair to ‘subdue the earth’ “could be interpreted as an invitation to use nature as a convenience. Thus the spread of Christianity, which is generally considered to have paved the way for the development of technology, may at the same time have carried the seeds of the wanton exploitation of nature.” Life magazine even went so far as to list the Bible’s promise that “the meek shall inherit the earth” among ridiculous and false predictions.

All such statements have a common thread: They are based on the assumptions that either God does not exist or he did not inspire the Bible or he does not have the wisdom and power to direct his creation and fulfill his promises. What do you think? Is there not a certain arrogance in making these assumptions without evidence? Anyone who has witnessed the awesome power and beauty of the ocean in a storm has seen firsthand evidence that the One who created our planet is indeed powerful. His wisdom is evident everywhere in the oceans and in the life that teems in them.

God’s command to ‘subdue the earth’ was not license to destroy it but rather the bestowal of an office of stewardship, a responsibility to care for and cultivate the earth. After all, if by commanding mankind to ‘subdue the earth,’ God meant that we should turn it into the pollution-mired mess that it is fast becoming today, then why did he provide Adam and Eve with the paradisaic garden of Eden to use as a model? And why did God tell man “to cultivate it and to take care of it” and eventually spread its boundaries by subduing the “thorns and thistles” growing outside this model garden?—Genesis 2:15; 3:18.

In fact, the Bible long ago made a remarkable prediction that could only apply to our own destructive generation, namely, that Jehovah is going “to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” (Revelation 11:18) Bible prophecy indicates that the time is near.

Yet, some blame God for pollution and point to man himself as the answer, the only hope. Reason suggests the contrary—that man himself is to blame, that the answer is far beyond him. Blaming God is nothing new. Proverbs 19:3 long ago exposed that myopic human viewpoint: “Some people ruin themselves by their own stupid actions and then blame the Lord.”—Today’s English Version.

The stewardship instituted in Eden some six thousand years ago is not obsolete. Anyone today who respects the Creator can show it by respecting his works instead of heedlessly fouling the environment. Each of us can help to keep the oceans clean. (See below.) But sadly, this world system is set up so that anyone who wants to contribute nothing at all to the pollution of the earth and seas would have to become a hermit, isolated in the wilderness. Imitators of Jesus don’t have such an option open to them; their ministry does not allow that.—Matthew 28:19, 20.

So the only hope for the complete end to the pollution of the oceans lies not with us but with God. His promises stand in stark contrast with man’s failures; he has never failed to fulfill one of them. That is why these words from the Bible can be of such comfort to us: “You are Jehovah alone; you yourself have made the heavens, even the heaven of the heavens, and all their army, the earth and all that is upon it, the seas and all that is in them; and you are preserving all of them alive.”—Nehemiah 9:6.

Soon, lasting beauty will be restored to the earth and its oceans. Yes, the “deep and dark blue ocean” will roll on—alive forever. The Creator will make sure of that.

[Box on page 9]

WHAT YOU CAN DO

How you can treat the oceans with respect:

· When boating and fishing, follow this simple rule: If you brought it out with you, bring it back with you. This applies especially to plastic materials. Try to minimize the loss of fishing line. Properly dispose of engine oil ashore, not at sea.

· At the beach, the above rule applies. Try to keep an eye on the plastic items you brought with you—bags for sandwiches, yokes holding soda cans together, plastic utensils, and bottles of lotion. Remember how easily some of these things will blow away if not weighted down. Before leaving, survey the area carefully, and take your garbage with you.

· Follow the same procedure when picnicking, fishing, or boating on rivers and lakes and their shores. Remember that polluting a river is wrong in itself. Furthermore, what you dump in a river may end up in the ocean later on to do still more damage.

· Obey all local laws on waste disposal and recycling.

· When washing clothes and dishes, use no more detergent than the job requires.

· Water, like air, is one of the basic essentials for life. Respect it, don’t pollute it.

Planting fruit trees alone the streams to restore nutrients back into the land and streams this valuable “resource”—a few inches of soil.

*** g75 8/8 pp. 12-15 Putting Nutrients Back into the Soil ***

Putting Nutrients Back into the Soil

DO YOU live in a food-growing area? If so, desert and famine conditions may seem like hundreds, even thousands, of miles distant. But that is not true.

Really, food shortage is no more than inches away from any place on earth.

It is only as far removed as the depth of the soil. Should a few vital inches of topsoil be removed from the earth, all life on it would eventually end.

Actual soil erosion is stealing much precious topsoil earth wide. For instance, African nations admit that soil erosion is a major problem. Says the Ethiopian Herald: “Tons after tons of earth are washed away every day from our highlands to neighboring countries so that our fields are gradually becoming sterile. With low fertility they can provide only low yields.”

But soil effectiveness can be crippled in another way: Nutrients can be taken from it and not be replaced, thereby greatly diminishing its ability to grow crops. To understand how this can happen requires that we first of all understand the makeup of soil.

What Is Soil?

Soil is, according to one simple definition, where food is grown. Experts know that not all soils are the same; each has its own history and unique value.

Ordinarily, geologists assert that soil comes from rock that has been ground down through millenniums of time, producing in the process vital minerals for the soil. No human, of course, was around to witness this assumed lengthy process. It is said that rock slowly crumbles under the influence of water and weather and other conditions. Obviously such things do have an effect on even the most stubborn rock. But are the vast periods of time that geologists talk about really necessary to have produced soil?

Not all geologists seem to think so. Thus in 1963, when the island of Surtsey was born in the Atlantic Ocean, National Geographic magazine reports: “Surging surf ground jagged lava into rounded boulders with a speed that astonished geologists attending Surtsey’s birth.” A few years at most, not countless aeons of time, was all that was involved. Also, volcanic ash accounts for much of the fertile soil of Indonesia and other lands, and it, too, is deposited quickly.

Most importantly, the Bible indicates that earth’s soil was formed rather quickly. It speaks of the dry land and vegetation as all appearing within one creative “day”—a period that the Bible indicates was seven thousand years in length. (Gen. 1:9-13 ) Appropriately, The Encyclopedia Americana asks: “How long does it take to produce an inch of soil—an inch of fine rock material that supports plants? One may say a few minutes or a few million years. It all depends upon the exact spot and what stage in the cycle we reckon from.”

Of course, there is much more to soil than just ground-up rock. Otherwise it would be like sand, unable to maintain plant life of any size. To grow plants soil must have humus; humus is produced as plants and animals die and their remains decay. Valuable nutrients that will nourish later plants and animals result from this process of death and decay. Animal droppings also supply nutrients.

How Nutrients Are Produced

All together, it appears that at least sixteen elements are needed for plant life to be sustained. Three of these sixteen are taken from the air: carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

But the other thirteen come from the soil: phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, iron, sulphur and traces of boron, manganese, copper, zinc, chlorine and molybdenum. The first three of these thirteen are considered “primary elements.” Where appreciable amounts of these thirteen elements are taken from the soil, they need to be replaced so that other healthy plants can appear in the future.

How does soil naturally act on dead organic material to make it usable by plants? Living organisms convert it into forms that can be employed by plants.

A thimbleful of soil contains billions of living organisms, each of which contributes to the vitality or fertility of the soil. In the top layer of soil is where most of these organisms thrive.

Among the larger ones are earthworms, considered the most valuable of all soil invertebrates. They not only break down much of the debris on the earth’s surface, but a]so turn the soil over and aerate it.

Highly productive soils a]so generally have an abundance of microorganisms, bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, algae and Protozoans. When a plant or an animal dies, its sugars, starches, cellulose and similar compounds are consumed by certain of these organisms. They, in turn, produce carbon dioxide in the soil and also reduce the dead matter to a form that plants can use. When carbon dioxide combines with moisture, carbonic acid is formed; it, in turn, does some of the work of dissolving minerals in the soil.

Nitrogen is vital to the life of plants. It has been estimated by Harry A. Curtis of the Tennessee Valley Authority that there are about 34,500 tons of atmospheric nitrogen over every acre of land area; that makes up about four fifths of the atmosphere. However, plants cannot directly use this nitrogen in its free gaseous state.

Rather, it must be combined with other elements or “fixed.” One of the ways that nitrogen is fixed for use by vegetation is by means of microscopic plants living on the roots of certain plants such as legumes.

However, when men grow a large acreage of crops, a tremendous amount of nutrients is extracted from the soil. One experiment at a Maine agricultural station found that in an acre of potatoes there are about 143 pounds of nitrogen, 26 pounds of phosphoric acid, 232 pounds of potash, 56 pounds of calcium oxide, 30 pounds of magnesium oxide and 11 pounds of sulphur.

Obviously, to restore these nutrients more is necessary than just allowing matters to take care of themselves “naturally.” Otherwise the soil grows weak and, in time, actually becomes infertile. Expert care of soil will not only keep it fertile but result in maximum yields. How can nutrients be restored to farmland?

Restoring Nutrients to Farmland

The first thing that a soil expert will ask is: ‘What is the soil’s pH?’ But just what does “pH” mean?

Well, soils are put into two basic categories: acid or alkaline. On a scale of 0-14 those soils falling into the 0 through 6 category are acid, while those above 7 and through 14 are considered alkaline. Soils that are 7 are considered neutral, neither acid nor alkaline.

Some crops prefer soils that are somewhat more acid, and others, more alkaline. Lime, when added to the soil, makes it more alkaline, that is, raises its pH.

Even if all the thirteen nutrients needed by plants are in the soil, a proper acid/alkaline balance is still necessary. Only in this way will plants be able to benefit fully from the nutrients that are in the soil.

Lime added to the soil does at least three things. It supplies needed calcium oxide. Secondly, it keeps some elements in check so that these will not poison the crop. Thus as the pH of acid soil is increased by adding lime, such elements as aluminum, iron, manganese, copper and zinc become less soluble. In more acidic soil the excessive presence of these elements will be harmful to crops, but as the pH of the soil is increased they become more inert. Thirdly, lime releases other elements that the plants can use to good advantage, while encouraging the growth of vital bacteria in the soil.

Since each soil is different, it is vital to consider what each one needs in the way of added nutrients. The primary ones, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), are the substances represented by the three sets of figures on a bag of commercial fertilizer. For instance, 10-12-8 stands for the percentage of nitrogen (10%), phosphorus (12%) and potassium (8%) in the bag.

Where do these fertilizers come from?

Today many farmers and gardeners say that they prefer to use only “natural” organic fertilizers such as manure, sewerage, sludge and compost to provide needed soil nourishment. The use of these products has long been recognized as a fundamental way of returning nutrients to the soil while at the same time adding humus. It is still a very common way of fertilizing soil in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

But much fertilizing done in the Western world today is on a very large scale. It is not possible to provide enough organic fertilizer for these gigantic operations. Fertilizing just one acre of land can require fifteen tons of animal manure. Obtaining such amounts is virtually out of the question for most farming operations today. So what is the alternative? “Chemical fertilizers.”

Some persons claim that chemical fertilizers are harmful if used to promote growth of food for humans. But a report by the U.S. House of Representatives notes: “No reliable evidence was presented that the use of chemical fertilizers has had a harmful or detrimental effect on the health of man or animals.” Nor has it definitely been proved that such chemicals, if used properly, harm soil life. Even “organic” gardeners use some rock powder, including rock phosphate, potash rock and crushed limestone, to build up the soils.

One farmer who has relied on chemical fertilizers for many years reasons: “The plants do not care where the nutrients come from, just as long as they get them.” Similarly, honest “organic” gardeners know too that a balanced view toward plant nutrition must be maintained. Says Organic Gardening and Farming: “There’s little agreement among soils experts on the comparative merits of natural fertilizers (nor on chemical fertilizers either, if the truth be known). Natural fertilizer makers call university agronomists lackeys of the petro-chemical industry . . . University scientists retaliate by labeling soil-conditioning salesmen as hucksters selling bags full of magic and hot air. There is no doubt some truth in both criticisms . . . Honest men stand on both sides of the fence.”

But how do men produce the “primary elements,” nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, in chemical fertilizers?

Their main source of nitrogen is synthetic ammonia. This comes as a result of combining nitrogen and hydrogen. Pure gaseous nitrogen can be obtained with relative ease by removing from the air oxygen and other gases. Hydrogen is a byproduct of petroleum. Synthesizing the two results in the needed ammonia. Some ammonia is put directly into the soil as a watery solution. However, most is converted into a solid and used by farmers and gardeners in that form. Most phosphates and potassium come from mineral deposits that are ground to the proper consistency.

Future of the Soil

Men have made and continue to make some very foolish mistakes in the way they deal with the earth. But, if properly cared for, the soil can produce crops indefinitely, even as noted in a Farm Journal editorial: “Soil that is properly fertilized and managed is not being used up. It is a renewable resource, as proved by the lands in Europe and Asia which have been cultivated continuously for thousands of years.”

Yes, this valuable “resource”—a few inches of soil—must be kept healthy to grant its greatest yield.

 

Planting fruit trees along the streams to prevent death by building the building blocks of life with chlorophyll.

*** g72 3/8 pp. 12-15 The Building Blocks of Creation ***

The Building Blocks of Creation

LOOK around you on this earth. What can you see? No one can fail to be moved by the sublime beauty of the hills and mountains, by the fascinating colors and shapes of the plants and trees and by the delightful abilities of the animals, birds and insects. The very complexity of creation just staggers the imagination.

Do you ever wonder from what all this profusion of beautiful and awe-inspiring things comes? What are the building blocks of creation? How are these building blocks assembled to produce the innumerable material things all around us? When we look at the multitude of marvelous creations, we see a seemingly solid world. Would it surprise you to know that all this is constructed from basic building blocks that are themselves 99.9 percent nothingness or emptiness?

For thousands of years man has tried to unravel the secret of what exactly it is that constitutes matter. The dictionary defines matter as “that out of which anything is made.” But from what is it made? It has only been in this century, indeed only in the last thirty or forty years, that scientists have really begun to understand the fundamental nature of material things. Now researchers tell us that all material things, whether they be the rocks, plants, animals, rivers or anything else that we can become acquainted with by using our bodily senses, are built up from building blocks that are themselves made from three basic particles.

These three basic particles, depending on the number of each present in the building block, determine the nature and properties of each block or “atom” that they form.

First, though, let us get our definitions straight. By “atom” we mean “the smallest particle of an element,” and an “element” has been defined as “a substance that cannot be resolved by chemical means into simpler substances.” For instance, if we could take a sample of the element we know as gold and keep on dividing it into smaller and smaller pieces, it would eventually be impossible to divide it further without its losing its original chemical identity. This smallest portion is the atom. Any further division would be a splitting of the atom into the aforementioned parts, called protons, neutrons and electrons.

The protons and the neutrons are about equal in weight, the difference in these being that, whereas the proton carries a positive charge of electricity, the neutron has no charge, hence is neutral. Relatively speaking, the protons and neutrons are huge compared to the electrons, having a mass about 2,000 times as great. The tiny electrons carry a negative charge of electricity, and since they always equal in number the protons, then the atom is a neutral body.

These three fundamental particles are built up in increasing numbers to form the atoms of the different elements, or the building blocks of creation. How many are there? For a long time it was thought that there were merely four elements; namely, air, fire, earth and water, but as knowledge increased, different elements were gradually identified. Now lists of the elements show over one hundred, some of them being man-made, artificial and unstable.

What, though, about this 99.9 percent nothingness? If we could see a single atom of any of the marvelous things around us, what would it look like? What kind of structure would it be?

Atomic Structure

All atoms have a central nucleus composed of a combination of protons and neutrons, surrounded by orbiting electrons. The only exception to this is the atom of the simplest element, hydrogen, which has only a single proton as its nucleus with one single electron in orbit around it.

Thus we get a mental picture of a sort of miniature solar system, with the electrons in comparatively large orbits around the small, compact nucleus, much as the planets move in orbit around the sun. This microscopic planetary system is different for each of the elements and is reproduced in each of the atoms of that element. What power and precision produced all that? Take, for example, an atom of the element carbon, as portrayed in the following schematic diagram:

Of course, we cannot see a single atom because an atom is so infinitesimally small. Each of these minute ‘planetary systems’ would measure a mere one hundred millionth of an inch in diameter! And the central nucleus or ‘sun’ would be only about one hundred thousandth the size of the entire atom in diameter!

Since the number of electrons in the atom can vary from one to over a hundred, depending on which element is under consideration, it is awesome, is it not, to consider the wonderfully intricate arrangement within the incredibly small space of each atom?

It is fascinating to realize that all the material things, all the seemingly solid things, from the green grass to the cow’s tail to the mountains, are made up of millions upon millions of these tiny atoms, each of which is itself predominantly emptiness and space between the central nucleus and the orbiting electrons. Yes, an atom is mostly empty space. Thus the Life Science Library volume Matter says: “If each atom were collapsed into a sphere no bigger than its own core, or nucleus, then all the bulk of the Washington Monument [555 feet high] could be crammed into a space smaller than the eraser on a pencil.”

The electrons in each atom orbit in what are referred to as “electron shells,” each “shell” being a set distance from the nucleus. As the atoms get progressively more complex by the addition of more of the basic particles, the additional electrons orbit in these “shells.”

For instance, the illustration of the carbon atom depicts it with two electrons in its inner shell and four in its next shell. An aluminum atom would have two electrons in its first shell, eight in its next shell and three in its outermost shell. In other words there is not an unruly mass of electrons without any fixed pattern but rather a very orderly arrangement in all this.

Since we are interested in how these building blocks are assembled to produce all the wonderful things that delight us so much, then we are particularly interested in these minute particles, the electrons. How so? Because it is the arrangement of these electrons in their orbits that determines the combining abilities of each atom. This combining ability is called “valence” or “valency.”

Combining by Borrowing Electrons

As research into the atom progressed, it was found that any element with a complete number of electrons (usually eight) in its valence ring (borrowing-and-lending shell) was extremely stable; that is, it did not readily combine with other atoms. These stable or inert elements are known as the rare gases—helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon.

Gradually a picture of the electron shells of all the elements was built up. It was found that atoms tended to try to make up a stable outer electron shell. The valence theory explains this by showing how the atoms do this either by borrowing and lending electrons, or by sharing electrons with other atoms. An element that has seven electrons in its outer shell, such as chlorine, will borrow an electron from an element that has one electron in its outer shell, like sodium, for instance. Look at the following diagram to see how this would happen:

Sodium, a soft, silver-white metal, which was discovered in 1807, is a very active element that reacts violently with water. It has a total of eleven electrons, the shells having two, eight and one electrons respectively. Chlorine, discovered in 1774, is a greenish-yellow gas. It has been used as a bleach, a disinfectant and also as a poison gas. The chlorine atom has seventeen electrons, its shells containing two, eight and seven respectively. Showing only the outermost electron shell, the diagram depicts how these building blocks combine and what results from this combination.

The chlorine atom borrows an electron from the sodium atom, becoming negatively charged in the process by the addition of this extra electron, while, vice versa, the sodium atom becomes positively charged. These charged atoms, now called “ions,” are attracted to each other because of their opposite charges, and they cling together to form the compound known as sodium chloride, or common salt.

From two seemingly unlikely building blocks with their own distinctive properties we get the common salt so vital for life. This rearrangement with regard to only one electron builds a completely new substance! A combination like this is called an electrovalent bond.

Combining by Sharing Electrons

Another kind of combination is called a covalent bond. In this kind of bond the various atoms share electrons to form the required stable outer electron shells. An example of this is when two carbon atoms, six hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom combine to form a molecule of ethyl alcohol, the intoxicating ingredient of many beverages. The covalent bonds of each pair of shared electrons are shown in the structural formula by a dash in the following diagram:

By thus sharing pairs of electrons the carbon atoms and the oxygen atom acquire a stable outer shell of eight electrons, while the hydrogen atoms acquire outer electron shells with two electrons.

More Complex Interaction

Of course, the interaction and attraction between the different atoms become very much more complicated as the far more complex molecules that go to make up the organic compounds, those having carbon in their molecules, are formed. An example of one of these organic substances serves to illustrate this. Here is a diagram showing the structural formula of a molecule of that amazing substance called chlorophyll:

Just think of it: Here are 72 atoms of hydrogen, 55 atoms of carbon, 5 atoms of oxygen, 4 atoms of nitrogen and 1 atom of magnesium, some of them already combined into prefabricated units, as it were, built up into one molecule of chlorophyll, one of the most important pigments in vegetation. This is the substance that accounts for the greenness in the countryside and that gives the plants the wonderful ability to convert the radiant energy of the sun into chemical energy for the plants to use.

Can you imagine the incredible interaction among the electrons as they whirl in their orbits to link the various atoms so as to make up even one molecule of chlorophyll? When one considers that it would take millions upon millions of such molecules to cover the period at the end of this sentence, one’s admiration for the Designer of such an arrangement can only grow and deepen.

Scientists have only begun to unravel the facts with regard to how and why the different building blocks combine, but they do know that there are fixed and orderly laws that govern these combinations. They stand in awe at the inconceivably intricate way in which the tremendously complex living cells of all forms of life build up these already complicated substances into the abundance of living things on the earth.

This buildup from imperceptibly small atoms to all the magnificent handiwork of creation is set out in the following diagram:

Look around you, and reflect on the wisdom and intelligence that has masterminded the production of all the material things we know, from the tiniest seed to the limitless universe—and all from building blocks that are themselves 99.9 percent nothing.

[Footnotes] Scientists have actually identified more than thirty atomic particles, but the ones mentioned above are the ones that determine the nature and properties of the element they form.

[Diagram on page 13] (For fully formatted text, see publication) Carbon atom has a nucleus with 6 protons and 6 neutrons, and has 6 electrons, two in the inner shell and four in the outer

[Diagram on page 14] (For fully formatted text, see publication) Combining of Sodium and Chlorine Atoms

Sodium     Chlorine         +    −

Atoms (showing only       Ions—forming

outer electron shells)    sodium chloride

[Diagram on page 14] (For fully formatted text, see publication) Molecule of Ethyl Alcohol

C: carbon atom

H: hydrogen atom

O: oxygen atom

[Diagram on page 15] (For fully formatted text, see publication) Molecule of Chlorophyll” “a.”

H:  hydrogen atom (72)

C:  carbon atom   (55)

O:  oxygen atom    (5)

N:  nitrogen atom  (4)

Mg: magnesium atom (1)

[Diagram on page 15] (For fully formatted text, see publication)  Three Basic Particles : protons; neutrons ; electrons

Atoms               Compounds                All Matter

over 100 elements   inorganic and organic    living and nonliving