Letters to the Editor

19135

You report that “the sea squirt has the beginnings of a spinal cord, making it a so-called chordate.” That’s the same mistake I fight against each time I teach my zoology class. What makes a sea squirt a chordate is the notochord in the animal’s larval stage. A notochord is a skeletal component, not a […]

19024

The most profound consequence of the research in this article is that there is no such thing as “now.” Since consciousness is spread out across the brain, and since those centers of brain activity cannot communicate faster than the speed of light, “now” is not the hard point in time we usually imagine. Rick NorwoodJohnson […]

19183

This article seems to contain a few errors. Codons are found on the messenger RNA. Therefore, they can’t contain thymine. They must have uracil, instead. The RNA codon AUG (your ATG) is the only codon for methionine. If it is the “start” codon, how is methionine coded? Nicholas L. Reuter University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio […]

19182

I’ve never been a baboon, but I have been a mom, and consequently a mother baboon’s failure to call out to a separated youngster emitting distress sounds is not a bit puzzling to me. If I heard my toddler wailing on the other side of the road, would I call and say, “Don’t worry, mummy’s […]

19181

Reading your article, I was struck with a question: Do the oxen form a psychological attachment to their oxpeckers (and vice versa)? One way of finding this out would be to observe whether the oxpeckers remain attached to one ox or are fickle partners. Jeff Leer Fairbanks, Alaska

19180

I cannot believe that a clinical trial of a new drug in a field in which there are accepted beneficial therapies would be either proposed as ethical by physicians or accepted by the Food and Drug Administration when containing a control group deprived of that beneficial treatment. For prior approval of the existing beneficial treatment, […]

19179

I’m curious. What’s the significance of the planets sharing the same plane? Isn’t that a coincidence? Robert T. DruryLos Angeles, Calif. It could be coincidence, but the plane that roughly defines the planets’ orbits may indicate the orientation of the protoplanetary disk of gas, dust, and ice that originally surrounded the young sun .–R. Cowen

19134

Are we breaking the laws of thermodynamics? I often wonder, in discussions of hydrogen as fuel, how one can provide energy to split water to get hydrogen and oxygen, then react them together as fuel, and expect ever to get a net gain in energy. Tom OstwaldUniversity of CaliforniaSanta Barbara, Calif. The media have lately […]

19096

The Japanese have developed an “artificial shark-fin machine” that produces a product quite similar in texture to the real thing. It’s being used in restaurants in Hong Kong. Let’s hope people’s tastes change before it is too late for the sharks. P.W.L. KwanBoston, Mass.

19095

In doing your usual excellent job of presenting information in interesting and lighthearted ways, you implied that bug zappers control mosquitoes. In fact, bug zappers don’t attract mosquitoes and therefore kill very few of them. They do kill large numbers of harmless and even beneficial insects, including pollinators and insects such as the crane fly, […]

19119

Regarding the discovery of the dinosaur heart with the single aorta, your readers should note that this morphology is more likely to be related to high blood pressure than metabolic rate per se. The typical reptilian heart, with its incompletely divided ventricle and double aorta, is quite functional at separating oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. The […]

19094

The scientists in this article may want to adapt their solar concentrator for a more prosaic use: cooking. In the early 1970s, I was involved in a project to build a self-sufficient dwelling that drew solely on the wind and sun for its power. We looked into using fiber optics to transmit solar energy to […]