Table of contents

This brief review describes a characteristic property of living systems–dissymmetry. The progression of phenomena beginning with dissymmetry in the simple chiral molecules that make up living organisms and leading to the manifestation of dissymmetry in psychology is examined. The advantages contributed by dissymmetry in simple molecules to the more complex formations, which originate from and are composed of these molecules and which bring about organization in living systems, are indicated. The theory of chirodiastaltic interactions, as an agent of this organization, is examined. The possibility of initiating and maintaining dissymetry in the form of chiral purity of matter with the participation of autocatalytic and nonequilibrium thermodynamic processes is analyzed. The current hypotheses that explain the emergence of dissymmetry during the evolution of life are reviewed. The fluctuation hypotheses and assumptions concerning the influence of weak constant factors are examined and the corresponding schemes for evolution are presented.

Data which indicate that the existence of nuclei and atoms and also of stars and galaxies is very sensitive to the numerical values of the fundamental constants, i.e., the coupling constants of the four interactions and the constants G, , c, m_p, etc., are reviewed. The variation of some constants by a few tens of percent with the other constants remaining unchanged would lead to the disappearance of stable ground states. Possible interpretations of this fact and its connection to some aspects of unified field theory are analyzed.

The aim of this review is to acquaint the reader with the principles and methods of ion radiography—a method of studying the inner structure of an object by using heavy charged particles. Along with the refinement of the traditional x-ray method of diagnostics and the development of a number of new methods, such as positron tomography and nuclear magnetic resonance, and in spite of the great advances attained in x-radiography in recent years, a persistent search continues for new, refined methods. First of all, efforts are directed toward seeking effective methods of early diagnosis of tumor lesions with less danger than in x-radiography. Studies have been conducted in a number of countries in the past decade on the possibility of applying heavy charged particles of relatively high energies for these purposes. Ion radiography enables one to obtain a higher contrast image than x-radiography at lower doses of irradiation, and to differentiate soft tissues and to detect in them anomalies of small dimensions. It opens up the possibility of obtaining new diagnostic information. Theoretical studies in the field of ion radiography and experiments on animals, on human tissues, and in a number of cases, on patients, have shown the promise offered by using ions for diagnosing not only tumors, but also a number of other serious lesions. This new field of study has incorporated the experience of particle and nuclear physics and widely employs its variety of investigational methods. This article also treats problems involving the application of accelerators for ion radiography and specifications for the beam parameters and for the particle detectors. This review gives an account of the advances in this new field of studies and the prospects for its development and the difficulties on the pathway of introducing it into practice.

If the initial roton distribution in helium has a resultant momentum above a certain critical value, it will relax to a state with a Bose condensate of particles with a nonzero momentum. In this state, the velocity of the normal component of the liquid will be equal to the Landau critical velocity.