Linda Carpinello, age 12, of Rensselaer, N. Y., for her question:

Why do salmon go upstream to spawn?

This is the Age of Science and experts, their minds filled with curiosity, are busy prying into the age ,old secrets of nature, One by one the ancient mysteries are being explained. Strange to sc y, this removes none of the wonder from our wonderful planet. Far from it. The true facts often seem more miraculous than any mystery we could imagine.

In the last few years, science has done some new exploring into the genes, those important little bodies inside the living cell. The genes give orders which the entire body of an animal must obey without question. Orle modern theory suggests that the genes of an animal are programmed with a schedule of orders for his entire lifetime,

There is already a wealth of evidence to support this theory.  If it proves true, it would explain why an animal repeats the life cycle of his parents. In the past, this built in information was cali.3d instinct   a word that nobody could explain very well. If the r.3w theory is correct, instinct is the programming of the genes which give orders to the cells of a living animal.

This theory might explain the strange migration of birds and eels. It might also explain the life cycle of the salmon. This magnificent fish may be programmed to spend his youth in fresh water and his adult life at sea. The last phase of his program orders him to return to the stream where he was born and produce eggs for a new generation of salmon.

There must be other factors, of course, to help the salmon carry out his orders. Experiments have proved that the parent salmon returning upstream to their fresh water nurseries use the sense of smell. Some, with their nostrils plugged, take the wrong branch of a stream and arrive at new breeding grounds.

This programming theory could also explain a lot about the ancestry of the salmon. The program of behavior is handed on from parents to children   though with every generation there are a few variations. The salmon ordered out to sea fed better and grew stronger than those ordered to stay in and near the fresh water, Different species of salmon developed as some were ordered to stay at sea for three years, some for five and some for seven years. The salmon that inherited programs which could not be carried out in their environment we ..ld perish. The strongest would be those with the most successful programs.

Adult animals hand on life to a new generation. But the youngsters must live where they have a fair chance to survive. Young salmon seem to need fresh water and the food they find there. If parent salmon lay their eggs at sea, the youngsters perish and that type of salmon does not survive, The salmon which survive are those with a life cycle which orders them back upstream to spawn in the fresh water nurseries where they are hatched,