Letters to the Editor

19325

While the report of ballistic testing of bacteria is a fascinating study of bacterial survival, I’d be more concerned about the effects of severe extremes of heat, cold, and vacuum on the survival of bacterial spores. As the study stands, we’re still left wondering about these other important factors. Jon OngWoodland Hills, Calif. Bacteria can […]

19324

This short piece didn’t say how self-esteem was assessed. Overdeveloped egotism is often a compensatory phenomenon in individuals with low self-esteem and can falsely present as high self-esteem. Self-reported self-regard taken at face value can lead to wrong conclusions about the effects of different levels of self-esteem on behavior, perception, relationships, and other aspects of […]

19035

I find the ideas promulgated in this article deeply disturbing. The idea of pulling out a couple of chemicals and standardizing them is a turning away from the holism that herbal remedies represent. This is the very essence of the complaint against conventional pharmaceuticals and why people are turning to herbals. That there is a […]

19243

The discovery that humans share 99.4 percent of their genetic sequences with chimps does not make chimps like us in any meaningful sense or lower “humanity’s pedestal” in the slightest degree. In some 5 million years on Earth the sum total of chimps’ cultural achievements has been exactly 0. In only 200,000 years, modern humans […]

19323

For those of us who know how to draw and understand the varieties of linear perspective, David Hockney’s proposal that the old masters used optical aids rings true. One of his examples will suffice: The uncanny accuracy of difficult-to-depict patterns in folding cloth in works of the early 1400s is an indication that optical aids […]

19322

Your article neglects the most difficult problem associated with sending a probe to the vicinity of Earth’s core: sending the information back. Even a few feet of earth will stop conventional radio waves. Extra-low-frequency transmissions would do the job, but a transmission could take years. Augusto Soux San Diego, Calif. David J. Stevenson of the […]

19242

There is another interpretation of the mitochondrial DNA data presented in this article. The data make it clear that the more advanced Cro-Magnon males only mated with Cro-Magnon females; however, there is no evidence that the Cro-Magnon females didn’t mate with the more muscular Neandertal males. Jeff Nicoll and Joan Cartier Washington, D.C. Much mixing […]

19321

Your article was very interesting. While hiking in terrains ranging from midwestern prairies to alpine environments, I’ve seen different forms of buckling due to freezing forces. Though evaporation was given a nod in the article, it too can be a significant force to form patterned ground. In March of 2002, I walked out to the […]

19320

This article could have been a little less disingenuous. It would still have been a very good article if you had used “sulfuric acid” instead of “odorless hydrogen sulfate” and admitted that the process still required a little alkali to neutralize this waste stream that is “carried away by water trickling over the foam.” Jim […]

19319

Your article says, correctly, that our research group performed ultrasound of the main blood vessel of the women’s arms as a measure of vessel-cell function throughout the body. However, we identified women at risk of preeclampsia by performing ultrasound tests to assess blood-flow restriction of arteries in the uterus during the second trimester of pregnancy. […]

19241

I’m doing an elk-calf mortality study in Yellowstone National Park. We can differentiate between scavenging and predation only by such evidence as signs of struggle at the scene, a trail of blood, evidence of a chase, and the pattern of flesh wounds. We cannot make the determination based on bone-consumption pattern alone. Therefore, I question […]

19318

In regard to natural causes of coal fires, another cause not mentioned in the article involves the oxidation of pyrite, an iron sulfide that commonly occurs in coal beds. When oxygenated groundwater percolates through fractures in the coal, the sulfide in pyrite will be oxidized to sulfate. This reaction is exothermic and may produce enough […]