Letters to the Editor

19086

This article says that the water drop is added to the back of the paper “as a wall against which the metal plume could push.” It seems more likely that the heat of the laser would even more violently vaporize the water, creating a small explosion that would drive the plane forward via the relatively […]

19085

Regarding this article, I live close to Mendota, Calif., the site of the photo depicting ground subsidence due to overpumping of groundwater. Though I have only lived here for two summers, I am surprised at the amount of water wasted daily by agriculture and residential users in this area. A casual observer would not know […]

19084

This article confirms what food-allergic persons have known for quite awhile, that food allergy reactions are not provoked only by ingestion. Another kind of kiss can cause reactions. My food-allergic daughter reports that “kisses” from pets may or may not cause hives, depending on the animal’s diet. Diane SmithOakton, Va.

19021

As stated in the article, nitric oxide is a recognized and commonly monitored pollutant. It would be of interest to see the incidence of sickle-cell disease plotted against NO pollution levels for similar populations. Sufficient data are probably already available. Ken MartwickFall Creek, Ore.

19078

I was saddened to see that water conservation received such short shrift in this article. The easiest, cheapest way to conserve water supplies is simply not to use them. Instead of figuring out how to put blankets on snowdrifts, why not just focus on turning off the tap while brushing your teeth or shaving? Alan […]

19091

This article is highly deceptive in implying that avid recyclers are responsible for more dioxin in backyard burning. True, the article does say that’s per pound of trash burned. But how many fewer pounds of trash per person per year do these people burn? In reality, many people who are avid recyclers are probably also […]

19020

“Vaccine for All? Math model supports mass smallpox inoculation” failed to mention an important complication for any type of smallpox-inoculation program: The vaccine might not work. A smallpox outbreak could be caused by a viral strain purposely engineered to evade any commercially available vaccine. Also, how likely is it that a new smallpox vaccine would […]

19077

I found “Voltage from the Bottom of the Sea: Ooze-dwelling microbes can power electronics” both interesting and troubling. In essence, the article describes a bioelectrochemical fuel cell that has been under constant investigation since the 1960s, when such studies were funded by NASA and the Office of Naval Research. These devices have been variously referred […]

19019

From my observations of men and women, I think men crave meat more than women do, whereas women crave pastries more than men do. If the team would offer chocolate éclairs, the PET scans might show more prefrontal cortex activity in women’s brains, less in men’s. Since men’s brains showed more, I suspect the liquid […]

19083

That six college students in London should require more brain activity than Italian students in decoding words is consistent with the use of whole-language methods favored in London classrooms when these respondents were young. For people not trained in phonics, word decoding is more difficult. A more complete study would include students from Scotland, where […]

19082

I thought this article was quite interesting, but I would derive a different conclusion than did the scientists featured. I would not presume that Easterners have less capacity to make logical inferences than Westerners, but that they give logical inferences less import. The primary religions in the East–Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism–stress the importance of harmony […]

19081

This article seems to ignore the fatal flaw in the search for the virtual person: While such a model is designed to represent all people, it in reality represents no individual. The ergonometric model says that a man is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. I can tell you–as a man 6 […]