Letters to the Editor

19055

Shame on Nature for saying, “the evidence available is not sufficient to justify the publication of the original paper.” The fact that transgenes get into maize is cause for caution. The agribusiness conglomerates are spending millions to stifle any intelligent debate about the risks and benefits of genetically engineered crops and modern chemicals. Without information […]

19070

According to this article, osmium is the least compressible of materials. When I looked at an encyclopedia article about osmium, I was surprised to discover that its name comes from a Greek root that means “odor.” I’d always thought it was named after the generic Anglo-Saxon word for a god, which is “os.” Gerald BakerCedar […]

19069

This article says that Rift Valley fever and the Ebola virus are linked to shifts from dry to above-average rainfall. It seems to me that Africa has a tremendous number of hibernating animals. They explode out of the ground when it rains. They and the animals that feed on them would be handled and eaten […]

19068

If an animal can boost its immune system in response to shortening days, why would it not keep its immune system operating at that higher level all the time? Is there some physiological cost to maintaining a higher level of immune response? Michael LehnerGreenfield, N.H. According to Staci D. Bilbo of Johns Hopkins University in […]

19067

At certain points in this article, the word evolution is directly tied with a verb in ways that perpetuate (however unintentionally) the misconception that evolution proceeds with a purpose or goal, perhaps even with a guiding sentience. It is obvious that you are simply using such phrases to make the articles easy to read and […]

19066

The article says of physicists’ thinking about black holes in Earth’s atmosphere, “Those newly created black holes would then quickly decay, harmlessly raining subatomic particles down onto our planet and ourselves.” Surely not every physicist thinks the possibility of creating a black hole is not dangerous. Could we not hear from the opponents of make-your-own-black-hole […]

19065

I was surprised to see no mention of small comets hitting Earth’s atmosphere over the eons as a source of surface water. This explanation, based on atmospheric observations, has gained growing acceptance over the past several years. Kenneth Saum Cotuit, Mass. Jonathan I. Lunine says that if local bodies provided water to Earth, then “Mars […]

18997

The article on star formation in the Eagle nebula badly misrepresents the implications of recent observations of this object. For example, the subtitle is “The Eagle’s EGGs: Not so fertile,” yet the stated conclusion of the recent work is that more of the Eagle’s EGGs contain young stellar objects than might have been expected. Rather […]

18996

In this article, Alan R. Templeton of Washington University used 10 sources of DNA for his geographic study of human origins. Peter A. Underhill of Stanford feels the population sampled was too small for statistical significance. How many would it take for an expanded version to be significant? Is there a chance such an enlarged […]

19054

In your coverage of the recent sonofusion work, you make the unsubstantiated and false remark regarding cold fusion and Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons: “However, neither the original pair nor anyone else could reproduce those findings, which have largely been discredited as a case study in mistaken science.” The peer-reviewed literature since 1989 does indeed […]

19053

As mavericks often are, Egon Brunswik was ahead of his time. It is becoming increasingly apparent that our cognitive abilities are the result of the gradual evolution of neurochemical brain processes that record the often-ambiguous sensory cues we perceive from our external physical and social environment, as well as internal cues from memory, habitual patterns, […]

18995

In this article, Bruce Tremper states how predictable avalanches are (more so than a stock market crash), yet the whole last page describes the opposite. Am I missing something? Jeff CottonLake City, Calif. Tremper didn’t quite say that avalanches are predictable. He said they don’t occur without warning signs. –S. Perkins