Letters to the Editor

18955

I am writing to correct a significant inaccuracy in your recent article “Landfills make mercury more toxic.” As a member of the National Research Council’s committee that produced the report you cite, I feel obligated to correct your statement, attributed to that report: “Some 60,000 U.S. children are born with developmental impairments triggered by fetal […]

18935

The statements made concerning the effect of vitamin E on the immune system in cattle don’t concur with the bulk of the data available. Many studies have indicated either marginal or no response. Only when the animal has been held on a deficient ration is the response dramatic. The idea that vitamin E could be […]

18934

“Faces of perception” states, “Early visual input to the right brain, which arrives via the left eye, proves vital. . . .” Then, the story presents findings based on people born with left-eye cataracts that were later removed. Unfortunately, the signals from the eyes are mixed almost immediately behind the eyes in the optic chiasma. […]

18954

I was surprised that the article “Dances with robots,” while mentioning Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (1959, Putnam), should speak of “master-slave telerobotic devices.” As any fan of the dean of science fiction knows, these devices are most properly called Waldos. Mark Sicking Spring Shadow, Conn. I am reading Science News on this anniversary of our […]

18953

“Physics bedrock cracks, sun shines in” says that solar neutrinos oscillate between different flavors on the trip to Earth and that those taking a longer path have more time to oscillate into kinds of neutrinos that the sun doesn’t produce. Do the scientists note a variation in neutrino types based on the eccentricity of Earth’s […]

18952

Your news piece was timely. But if we see that big quake, most likely Washington State will be in worse shape. Recent comments by seismologists, volcanologists, and oceanographers concerning a large quake on that major fault line and/or a big volcanic eruption would be something out of Biblical times. Take a look at the Washington […]

18951

That is a neat little recycle program described in “New test traces underground forest carbon.” As fast as the CO2 comes out of the ground, the tree grabs the carbon by photosynthesis and leaves two oxygen atoms in the atmosphere. A portion of the carbon is stored until the wood rots or burns. Some carbon […]

18950

In the space of a single paragraph, you report that the National Academy of Sciences and the United Nations conclude that human activity “very likely” has caused global warming and that “uncertainties remain about the role of human-generated gas emissions.” One can’t have it both ways. Given the uncertainties involved, President Bush is following the […]

18949

With reference to the opinion that hemophiliacs might have expected to feel better and been less likely to treat themselves for internal bleeding following a form of gene therapy, I can only object to the suggestion that hemophiliacs can feel-better themselves out of an internal bleed. As a mother and grandmother of hemophiliacs who coped […]

18948

The interesting article “Survey probes cosmos from near to far” set me to tilting at windmills. Even before it’s completed, the professional astronomers managing the Sloan Digital Sky Survey should enlist amateur astronomers as asteroid hunters in a way similar to how they’re mobilized by the SETI@home project to search for intelligent signals from space. […]

18947

It was a bit of a shame that the fossil-trackway site pictured on the cover of the June 9 issue was not identified, as it is one of the more remarkable ones ever uncovered in North America . The tracks shown are a few of hundreds across the floor of a quarry near Culpeper, Va. […]

18946

Pluto is distinguished by properties other than its size, and its representation in “Nine planets, or eight?” as just another gray ball was misleading. It has the most contrasting surface known in the solar system (bright nitrogen ice caps and dark carbonaceous equatorial areas). To understand the processes ongoing on Pluto’s surface and within its […]