Radio-Activity and the Age of the Earth

Abstract

I AM gratified to learn from Dr. Fermor's letter in NATURE for July 10 that there is a scientific possibility of conceiving how the interior of the earth may be devoid of radio-activity. But if “high pressure and temperature” can inhibit the dissociation of potentially radio-active substances, will they not do so also in the interior of the stars? If so, radio-activity will no longer be available to prolong their radiation of energy, and we shall be back in the old difficulty about the age of the sun. Indeed, it will be aggravated, because we now have positive evidence for a high antiquity of the earth, while still unable to explain that of the sun.