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THE JAINA PHILOSOPHY
the first fission and fusion occurs in the lighting of the match, the cellulose in the match being fissioned into its component atoms of carbon and hydrogen These atoms are then fusioned with the oxygen of the air The same thing happens when the tobacco catches fire In each case the fusion with oxygen makes possible the fission of the cellulose
It is a scientific fact that man now has at his disposal means that not only can wipe out all life on earth but also make the earth itself unfit for life for many generations to come Here we have indeed what is probably the greatest example of irony in man's history. The very process in the sun that made life possible on earth and is responsible for its being maintained here, can now be used by man to wipe out that very life and to ruin the earth for good In both, fission and fusion, only a very small fraction of the mass of the protons and neutrons in the nuclei of the atoms used is liberated in the form of energy, while 99 3 to 99 9 percent of the substance remain in the form of matter
Scientists are even now engaged in finding means of converting 100 percent of the matter into energy ie complete annihilation of matter by the conversion of the entire mass of protons and neutrons into energy instead of only 04 to 07 percent And while the total conversion of protons and neutrons still seems speculative, we already know that such a process actually does take place in the realm of the electron This is the phenomenon of the mutual annihilation of a positive electron (positron) and a negative electron, achieved numerous times on a small scale in the laboratory In this process the entire mass of the two particles is converted into energy Luckily each positron must be individually
