Letters to the Editor
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Letters
Misunderstood males? I grew up on a farm, and it was not uncommon for male horses, male goats and even male deer to let out a snort whenever anxiety surfaced in them — whether it be from a predator in the area, the removal of food from their eating area or the wandering off of […]
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Letters
Time’s arrow I’ve enjoyed reading Science News since I was a kid; thanks very much for producing such a fine periodical! This is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write to you about an article you’ve published: “Law and disorder” (SN: 6/19/10, p. 26). I can’t help but feel that the time theory that […]
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Letters
A placebo’s true nature There is a serious misconception put forth in the letter from William Davis (Feedback, SN: 5/22/10, p. 31). The placebos used for placebo-controlled, double-blind studies of pharmaceuticals are not “sugar pills.” These placebos are made from the same inactive ingredients in the same proportions used to make the dosage form containing […]
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Letters
Engineering irritation The article “Engineering a cooler Earth” (SN: 6/5/10, p. 16) was incredibly irritating. The solution to global warming is not technology of the type presented, but population and pollution control. You need to start talking about that. The longer we see the problem in technical terms, the less likely we are to even […]
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Letters
SN on the newsstand I’m blind so I’ve been reading your magazine in braille for quite a while. But most of my sighted friends have never heard of you guys. This is a great publication, and I’m glad that more readers will now become familiar with it (“Science News goes public: available on newsstands,” SN: […]
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Letters
Call for caution “Bar codes may check out next” (SN: 4/24/10, p. 14) describes a new ink that would enable a full grocery cart to be quickly checked out electronically. Hurrah? Undoubtedly the amount of radio frequency per package would be minimal. However, if much of our food were handled that way, and people used […]
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Letters
ET, stay home Your excellent editorial in the April 24 issue of Science News (“An intelligent ET would probably just stay home”) explained the most obvious reasons for the unlikelihood of an extraterrestrial message, let alone visitors. Additional obstacles worth mention are 1) the gigantic retro-rockets, parachutes and heat shields required for braking a super-speeding […]
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Letters
Making morphine The article “Chemists pin down poppy’s tricks for producing narcotic painkiller” (SN: 4/10/10, p. 5) may presage geopolitical changes in Afghanistan, regardless of whether there are engineered virus attacks or alternative crop programs. A technological advance like this one will eventually be used in the United States and Europe. Even if governments continue […]
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Feedback
Letters for May 8, 2010.
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Letters
Naked speed The article “Running barefoot cushions impact of forces on foot” (SN: 02/27/10, p. 14) says a lot about whether running barefoot is or isn’t healthier than running shod. Has anyone looked into which is faster? Henry Jones, Baton Rouge, La. “No,” responds Daniel Lieberman, a professor of evolutionary biology at Harvard University. But […]
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Letters
Hairy Ardi issue In the report on Ardi (“Evolution’s bad girl,” SN: 01/16/10, p. 22), the artist’s illustrations show her in fur. The fact that her purported descendants are relatively hairless has been popularized by Desmond Morris (The Naked Ape, 1967) and Elaine Morgan (The Descent of Woman, 1972). What is the paleoanthropologists’ evidence that […]
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Letters
Ancient graffiti Regarding “Graffiti on the walls in Pompeii” (SN: 01/30/10, p. 14), I remember reading some years ago about graffiti being discovered in Pompeii. There was even a symbol that researchers interpreted as a sort of “Kilroy was here.” Is this an ongoing study? New sites? I wonder if there were other markings, such […]
