Letters to the Editor

18911

This article attributes the low visibility of the book Introductory Physical Science to the publisher’s limited means of promotion. This is only part of the story. Much more serious is the fact that many states’ mandated tests demand such shallow coverage of so many topics that they force bad textbooks on the schools. Uri Haber-Schaim […]

18908

In the March 17 issue, there was an article about arsenic pollution disrupting hormone activity (“Arsenic pollution disrupts hormones”) and another article concerned with satellite verification of greenhouse-gas effects from increased levels of carbon dioxide and methane (“Satellites verify greenhouse-gas effects”). Ironically, that same week, President Bush recommended that more stringent arsenic standards be set […]

18910

In the March 17 issue, there was an article about arsenic pollution disrupting hormone activity (“Arsenic pollution disrupts hormones”) and another article concerned with satellite verification of greenhouse-gas effects from increased levels of carbon dioxide and methane (“Satellites verify greenhouse-gas effects”). Ironically, that same week, President Bush recommended that more stringent arsenic standards be set […]

18909

As a university earth science professor, I view my son’s middle and high school science texts with horror. I see similar symptoms in the behavior of some of my undergraduate students. I view the problem as being an educational system in which, through high school, teachers are trained how to teach but not what. College […]

18907

About the Hippocratic Oath, as quoted in “I do solemnly swear . . .,” “first, do not harm” is not in it, although it has been said so dozens of times. Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary‘s version of the oath states “. . . never do harm to anyone.” “First, do no harm” (Primum non nocere) […]

18906

As an old noncentenarian, I was getting along very well with “Making sense of centenarians” until I reached Thomas Perls’ remark: “My hope is that we will actually see the development [from genetic research] of medications . . . .” I will bet your great-grandmother survived very well with the least medication possible. It seems […]

18905

“Jiggling the cosmic ooze” states that Leon Lederman won the Nobel prize in 1988 for “codiscovering the muon.” It is a small error, but more correctly, Lederman won the Nobel prize for codiscovering the mu neutrino. The muon was discovered in cosmic rays in 1937–1938 by researchers using cloud-chamber techniques. Peter B. Kahn State University […]

18904

In regards to “Dinosaur fossil yields feathery structures,” the scattered feathery structures may have belonged to an antecedent of Archaeopteryx but not necessarily a Sinornithosaurus. Given the context and location of the fossils, it seems more likely they belonged to the raptor’s last meal before its untimely demise. Aaron Stough Roanoke, Va.

18903

One can question the basic assumptions of the people doing the study described in “Sedentary off-hours link to Alzheimer’s.” One would hope that going to church is not less an intellectual endeavor than others, though it may be less physical than knitting or gardening. Even TV can be intellectual if viewers are testing their ability […]

18918

Finally, scientists are exploring the nature of religious experiences. Scientists will soon discover that the final frontiers of science and the origin of religion are one and the same. In authentic Zen Buddhism, ultimate reality is that from which all things come and to which all things return. Astrophysicists are traveling in time to find […]

18902

“Force from empty space drives a machine” cites the attraction between a gold plate and a ball as proof of vacuum energy and the Casimir force, but isn’t it possible that science has jumped the gun? There may be other causes of this behavior, such as the photoelectric effect producing static electricity, chemical-bonding forces, magnetism, […]

18901

Since pandas produce twins “roughly half the time” and “the mother routinely selects one, and the other dies in a few days,” it seems that there is an opportunity to rear the discarded one experimentally (away from the mother). Has this been tried? It seems a waste to let one of the twins perish. Rhodes […]