Letters to the Editor

18979

The work in this article does show nonlinearity of cell damage from alpha radiation in the dose range studied, but the lowest dose studied (5 percent of all cell nuclei hit) is probably several orders of magnitude above the mean lethal dose for any organism. The researchers need to look at linearity through the dose […]

19044

The discussion of photon entanglement in this article invokes the debatable premise that physical facts are not real unless they are observed. The article’s own glove metaphor provides a perfect counterexample. Suppose I receive a package of gloves (entangled particles) from a glove factory (particle generator), each glove wrapped individually. I keep one and send […]

19043

The article was disappointing on two grounds. First, it was poorly researched, quoting numerous lawyers for farming interests opposed to the Endangered Species Act. Second, it failed to note that most of the growing need for water (as well as virtually all other resources) is closely linked to human population growth that is out of […]

19042

The brief article on the discovery of sheets of melted sand in Australia mentioned several possible sources of the heat that produced this material, but it failed to mention the most probable source–the impact of a comet on the upper atmosphere. The nature of comets is that when they encounter an atmosphere of significant density […]

18978

The article notes that Joo Zilho has hypothesized that the rapid spread of agriculture in Europe occurred as a result of peoples need to escape conflicts in heavily populated communities marked by class and social division. I believe a more likely cause is the catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea, which occurred 7,500 years ago. […]

19041

I think this article ignored the major reason that large particles rise to the surface. The laws of inertia and momentum indicate that larger particles don’t react as quickly as smaller particles do at the end of each back-and-forth shake of the container. This means there is a force for relative motion between different-sized particles. […]

18977

The occurrence of underflows or hyperpycnal currents originating from the mouth of the Salinas River should be no surprise, given the long-known riverine bathometric feature existing between the river and Monterey Canyon. The river has a high sediment load, so if these currents weren’t present, sediments from the Salinas River would settle on the continental […]

19040

I enjoyed your timely article. Conspicuously absent, however, was any mention of the possibility that the disease is a vascular disorder with neurodegenerative consequences, rather than the other way around. The involvement of several dozen risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease that all reduce or impair cerebral perfusion in the Alzheimer’s brain adds ammunition to this […]

19039

For a few unfortunate people, choline has a dark side. An inborn error of metabolism, trimethylaminurea, causes them to smell like rotting fish when they eat high-choline foods. Sara D. Brown Clinton, N.J. Good point. New labeling that identifies foods rich in choline should help people with trimethylaminurea avoid those foods. –J. Raloff As a […]

19033

The article states that a generic beta-blocker, when administered to patients who have suffered severe injury, was shown to reduce the common muscle-wasting condition known as hypermetabolism. Has this technique ever been considered for or shown effective in reducing inactive muscle wasting, as would occur in a long-term space voyage? Dwain L. Beaver Dayton, Ohio […]

19032

A Canadian nurse I know is working in Mt. Selinda, Zimbabwe. She is currently designing her dissertation, in which she will interview local women in an attempt to understand their perspectives on health and how to prevent HIV infection and AIDS. When I read your article on stigmas’ harm to public health , I e-mailed […]

19031

I found the article on Welwitschia enthralling–it made me want to set off for the Namibian desert straightaway! The author mentions that a local name for the plant is “long-haired thing,” but an even more evocative and picturesque one is the Afrikaans tweeblarkanniedood (two-leaf-cannot-die). Darwin was fascinated when he learned of Welwitschia and its extraordinary […]