Letters to the Editor

19159

I read your article with great interest. There was a minor emergence of periodical cicadas this year in the area. However, despite what the article says, I don’t believe it was a brood emerging 4 years early. In 1983, 4 years before the last major emergence, there was a similar minor emergence. The 2000 emergence […]

19219

We’re not surprised they found sugar in the middle of a Milky Way! Gayle Hunt and David Dawson Seattle, Wash.

19176

Your article tells us there are 65 times fewer deaths per mile traveled in flying commercial aircraft than in driving. Fear of being killed in traveling is, I submit, based not on safety per mile traveled but on safety per trip taken. Further, fear of flying is based on the manner of death. If cars, […]

19218

Thank you for the article about the wild Bactrian camel. However, one false impression needs correction. The Wild Camel Protection Foundation (WCPF) is not planning a program of captive wild camel embryo transfer in order to release the offspring into the wild. The program’s immediate aim is to increase the number of captive wild stock […]

19217

Sorry to be paranoid, but if the technology exists to make scratches on bullets that are exact duplicates for use in testing, does not the ability also exist to produce a bullet supposedly from a shooting victim that’s an exact match to one fired from your gun? Harold ReedMilledgeville, Ga. Fingerprints and DNA are useful […]

19205

The nocturnal singing of coquies is beloved in Puerto Rico, especially after several years of unexplained population decline. Is there any chance that the little coquies can be returned from Hawaii? Mario A. LoyolaMayaguez, Puerto Rico The Coqui Hawaiian Integration and Reeducation Project (CHIRP) is applying for an export license for coquies .—J. Raloff Your […]

19204

It’s gratifying to see scientific validation of something people of southern Louisiana have know for years. Legend says that when the Acadians migrated from Canada to Louisiana, their friends the lobsters were so lonely for them they decided to travel down to be with the Cajuns. So the lobsters walked down the eastern shore, around […]

19194

Your article reports that adding single-wall carbon nanotubes to a ceramic can “nearly triple its resistance to fracturing.” The similar technology of adding tubes (straw) to bricks has been around for thousands of years and is of comparable effectiveness. Lee W. CaspersonPortland, Ore.

19158

This article reports that 223 out of 243 aircraft in the study produced contrails and that the researchers produced a model that predicts contrails correctly 92 percent of the time (but doesn’t predict their duration). Based on the article, I propose the simplest possible model: Always predict a contrail. You’ll be right 223/243 (92 percent) […]

19198

This article reports that 223 out of 243 aircraft in the study produced contrails and that the researchers produced a model that predicts contrails correctly 92 percent of the time (but doesn’t predict their duration). Based on the article, I propose the simplest possible model: Always predict a contrail. You’ll be right 223/243 (92 percent) […]

19199

In your article, you describe Einstein’s negative reaction to Newton’s proposition that gravity acts instantaneously on two objects. The notion of simultaneous (if not instantaneous) properties in physics is one of the basic notions of quantum physics. I do not feel that Einstein’s “particle-like” description of light makes him (even “ironically”) “a builder of the […]

19169

In this article you mention that Lyme disease is the most common “insect-borne” disease in the United States. Since Lyme disease is spread by ticks, and ticks have eight legs and are arachnids, Lyme disease is not insect-borne. Anne Van Aller Woodbine, Md.