Letters to the Editor

19293

I’m sure the new therapies, including drug therapy, outlined in this article will greatly help many people. I was unhappy, however, to see that the drug D-cycloserine was going to be used to help people overcome their fear of public speaking. I had a great fear of public speaking, but 1 year in the club […]

19292

I thought that the X and Y chromosomes determined gender in animals, but I see no mention of them in your article. Does this mean that on a genetic basis, males and females in these organisms are identical? Neil H. MurphyWalnut Creek, Calif. In a sense, yes, says Philip Hastings of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute […]

19370

The contrast between the first and last sentences of your article is puzzling. The introduction states that the experimental drug “causes minimal side effects.” The piece ends with an observation, “Seven percent of volunteers died” and specifies drug-related complications as the cause. This would hardly qualify as a minimal side effect and should certainly discourage […]

19369

Your article gives American beef eaters a false sense of security. Yes, only 1 cow out of the 20,000 tested has been discovered to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). However, over 35 million cows were slaughtered in the United States last year, meaning that only 0.06 percent of all cows slaughtered were tested for BSE. […]

19365

I do not know about the rest of your readers, but I do “hear” at least some low frequency sounds, but not with my ears. The nerves in my feet feel these vibrations and my brain parses the sounds to my flight-or-fright processor before I can process any conscious perception. Ray BryanSt. Paul, Minn.

19360

In the arts, we say that material, such as paper, that deteriorates readily because of its composition has “internal vice.” I suppose that could be said of newspapers on several grounds. Lawrence Wallin Santa Barbara, Calif.

19368

In this article, the statement is made that personal environmental exposures to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are easily solved. The implication is that if you have a long commute and are thereby exposed to high concentrations of VOCs, you should just quit your job to avoid exposure. I find that completely absurd. Mark PalmerRichland, Wash. […]

19366

I find the language in this article to be judgmental and unscientific. For example, “desert pavement and their biota are wounded by human activity” is neither artistic nor scientific. Such narrow, biased views of ecology have no place in a scientific journal. Boone MoraGarden Valley, Calif.

19367

This article skipped one of the most significant methods for analyzing text for authorship. On March 11, 1887, Thomas Corwin Mendenhall reported in Science a straightforward method of plotting word length versus frequency. The beauty of this method is that it doesn’t depend upon the exercise of judgment on the part of the investigator. Donald […]

19301

This article skipped one of the most significant methods for analyzing text for authorship. On March 11, 1887, Thomas Corwin Mendenhall reported in Science a straightforward method of plotting word length versus frequency. The beauty of this method is that it doesn’t depend upon the exercise of judgment on the part of the investigator. Donald […]

19364

The conclusion does not follow from the data in this article. The possibility was not ruled out that the same inborn trait that causes fear of novelty also hastens aging. A cohort of novelty-averse rats should have been left stressfree to answer this important question. Tom PaskalMontreal, Quebec

19363

This article speculated on the evolutionary origins of thermogenesis and observed how it predominates in ancient lineages of flowering plants like magnolias and water lilies. But thermogenesis goes back much farther than this, for it also occurs in cycads, nonflowering plants that arose in the Paleozoic. The male cones of some cycads, when mature, may […]