| Summary: | Probing of Chemical Life. Probing of Chemical Life. By William L. Laurence. Next week, at the Harvard Tercentenary Conference of Arts and Sciences, chlorophyll—a substance which gives plants their green color and which often has been referred to as "life's greatest organic chemical" —will come in for a great deal of attention on the scientific program. All green living plants contain chlorophyll, which, by a mysterious process known as photosynthesis, utilizes the energy of sunlight for the conversion of carbon dioxide (carbonic acid gas) of the air into sugar, starch and proteins—in other words, food for the animal kingdom. Without chlorophyll no plants could grow and all life on earth- plant, animal and man—would be doomed to extinction. At the conference, celebrating the 300th anniversary of higher education in the United States, namely the founding of Harvard College, some of the world's leading authorities on chlorophyll will tell of the latest advances in this highly important field of research—research which promises to lead to the solution of one of life's great creative mysteries. Chief among the authorities to be present will be Dr. Hans Fischer of Munich, Germany, who has devoted a lifetime of study to the subject and has made important contributions toward establishing the structure of the chlorophyll molecule, and President James Bryant Conant of Harvard, whose epoch-making work on the chemistry of chlorophyll has gained him world renown. Plant Coloring and Blood A close chemical relationship has been found between the green coloring matter of plants and the red coloring matter of the blood, known as hemin. It has been found that the chemical structures of both hemin and chlorophyll contain a volatile mixture of bases known as pyrrols, the exact composition of
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