Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - Research on Campus (1949) [PAGE 12]

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Physical Fitness

T H E PICTURES on this page are all concerned in one way or another with physical fitness. T h e athlete in the top picture is running on a treadmill while Dr. Thomas Gureton of the Department of Physical Education measures the amount of his oxygen intake. In the same picture is Herb McKenley, Illinois athlete who holds the world's record for the quarter mile. He has completed his run and is having his blood pressure checked. During 1948, a large part of the American Olympic team came to Urbana to participate in these tests. Purpose was to try to find out what physical fitness really means physiologically and what degree of fitness the average m a n needs to feel well and be effective. T h e second picture shows research on post-operative recovery. T h e patient has recently been operated upon. Now he is being given exercises to keep u p his muscle tone and speed his recovery. It has been found that patients can get out of bed much sooner and resume normal activity much more quickly if they are given a proper program of exercise during convalescence. T h e third picture is taken in a low pressure chamber which is a part of the University's physical environment research unit. New high altitude airplanes and wartime experience in the tropics and the polar regions showed us that we know far too little about the effect of environment on man. In this low pressure chamber, men are being tested under the same atmospheric conditions they would face in high-altitude flight. Other chambers test the effect of great cold. Results of these controlled environment studies are valuable also in the study of allergies. A new building to house the University's Aeromedical and Physical Environment Laboratory was dedicated this year on the Chicago campus. Research on problems of physical environment will be accelerated by the new facilities.

Inaudible Sound

ULTRASONIC vibrations are sound waves of such high frequency that they cannot be heard by the h u m a n ear. When produced at high intensity, such high-frequency sound waves have striking properties. In the picture at the left, a crystal immersed in a glass of liquid is vibrating at an ultrasonic frequency. T h e energy which its vibration transfers to the liquid is producing a miniature geyser at the surface of the liquid. It has been known for some time that passing such ultrasonic vibrations through a liquid will kill bacteria present in the liquid. Illinois scientists are seeking the explanation of this bactericidal effect. Other effects of ultrasonic waves on living tissue are under study at Illinois. T h e nerves of the living body carry their messages from one part of the body to another by means of tiny electrical disturbances which race along the nerves at speeds of about 400 feet per second. It has been found that when a nerve is subjected to ultrasonic waves, its response to stimulation is greatly modified. An experiment of this sort is shown above. Illinois scientists have found a way to generate highintensity ultrasonic waves at a variable frequency.

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