2.  Germanium: A Semiconductor

    For the next 60 years germanium received little attention. remaining a subject of scientific study merely as a rare element. In 1948, however, it came to be utilized for its semi conducting characteristics by Brattain. Bardeen, and Shockley of the U.S. Bell Telephone Laboratories in the development of transistors and diodes, both of which came to play a leading role in modern electronics transistors by replacing vacuum tubes as amplifiers, and diodes by becoming excellent rectifiers.

    With the advent of these solid-state devices, germanium came to play a major role in the development of modern civilization from within the field of electronics. With worldwide attention centered on the characteristics of germanium as a semiconductor, its potential role in the field of biochemistry went virtually unnoticed. Research conducted on its possible applications in other fields brought few results and gained little momentum.

    In appearance germanium is a metal, but it is completely without metallic properties. Many scientists in various countries refer to it as a nonmetal, while in Japan we tend to classify it as a semi metal.  Usually, it is referred to merely as a semi conducting substance. In the classical school of physics, the characteristics of semiconductors were not clearly defined, and an adequate explanation for them was not given until the advent of quantum physics which is centered on the phenomena of effects produced by atomic and molecular electrons.  Electronics engineers have since come to marvel at the whimsical and magic like behavior of semiconductor electrons, and the quantum revolution soon spread to other fields. In the field of biochemistry, quantum biology and electrobiology emerged.

    Whilst reading about these new fields of science, the thought of the characteristics of germanium, always in the back of my mind, flashed before me. Germanium electrons had been known to exhibit an uncommon behavior and I started thinking.

    Germanium, atomic number 32, has 32 electrons, four of which are constantly moving unsteadily along the outermost shell of the atom. These four electrons are negative electrical charge carriers and if approached by a foreign substance one will be ejected out of its orbit.

This famous phenomenon is known in electronics as the positive hole effect which is so ingeniously utilized in forming transistors and diodes. When one of these four electrons is ejected, a positive charge hole is created and the remaining three seize electrons from other atoms in order to maintain balance.

    The thought came to me almost intuitively, but one day when I was dwelling on the fact that living organisms also come under the physical laws of matter, I was led to make a hypothetical supposition as to the effects that the semiconductor phenomenon would have on  a living body.  Since there exists in physiology a phenomenon known as the dehydrogenating  effect by which the negative ion of hydrogen (which may be viewed as an electron) is discharged from the body, I was  led to the assumption that germanium might have interesting biological applications as well (Dr. Asai discusses the relationship of living organisms and physics in a subsequent section, "Man-An Aggregate of Ultra Microscopic Electricity." The concept of dehydrogenation will also become apparent in subsequent sections. Briefly stated. it refers to the action of organic germanium in seizing and combining with hydrogen ions which have accumulated in the body to remove them)

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